The German police stopped and searched a car crossing the border from the Netherlands and thereby detected large quantities of drugs. What sounds like a standard procedure is actually a very controversial case recently heard at the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof; BGH), dealing with so called legendierte Polizeikontrollen. These are apparently random police checks that are, in reality, well prepared and specifically targeted at the subject of the police check due to ongoing investigations. This case raised the issue of lawful evidence gathering by the police when pursuing both preventive and repressive objectives, as well as the question of the subsequent exploitation in court of the evidence obtained. Addressing issues of the utmost significance, such as the circumvention of the rights of the accused, this BGH judgment was critically reviewed among legal scholars.
