Putting Probability Back into Probable Cause

In his Article, Professor Max Minzner advocates for a novel change to the search-warrant acquisition process.  When police officers apply for a warrant or conduct a probable-cause search, courts do not consider the individual officers' historical success rates in making such searches.  Max Minzner argues that this data, along other data, such as the success rate of an officer's unit, should be considered in courts' probable-cause analyses.  Minzner maintains that applying information about the relative success of past searches can help to prevent unfruitful searches and increase the likelihood of discovering admissible evidence.