Abstract
Searches and seizures do not violate the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution where entry to specified premises is authorized by a properly issued search warrant based on an affidavit showing probable cause. Probable cause may be established by information given to an affiant officer by an informer if the information in the affidavit meets the require-ments of the two-pronged test set forth in Aguilar v. Texas. The first prong of that test, the informant-conclusion portion, requires that the affidavit describe some of the pertinent underlying circumstances necessary to judge the validity of the informant's conclusion. The other prong, the reliability portion, provides that the affidavit must sufficiently describe the underlying circumstances from which the magistrate can determine the credibility of the informer or the reliability of his information." Concerning the reliability portion of the Aguilar test, a small minority of jurisdictions have lowered the standard of informer credibility and have adopted the citizen informer rule, which states that a "citizen who purports to be the victim of or to have witnessed a crime is a reliable informant even though his reliability has not theretofore been proven or tested."
Recommended Citation
Constitutional Law-Search and Seizure-The Standard of Reliability for the Citizen Informer is Reduced in Virginia,
7
U. Rich. L. Rev.
367
(1972).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol7/iss2/14