The Search & Seizure Show

Can police officers enter a house after a 911 hangup?


Listen Later

The following is a computer-generated transcription, some grammar and spelling errors may be inherent

Alright guys, this is a question that comes up a lot. It is when can we enter a home after a 911? Hang up? Right? I shouldn't really say 911 Hang up. And let me give you some context here from my email. All right, there's officers from Texas, you know, we often get sent to Nemo and hang up calls with no information provided by the caller. When we get on scene and someone answers the door, they typically tell us everything is fine. You know, inside it was also it was an accident. My question is, at what point do we have an obligation to go inside the home to check on the welfare of others. So the cop will typically ask if there's anyone else inside. And if they say no, and the cop doesn't have any reason to believe anyone else is inside there, then the officer concludes the investigation leaves. Now they tell the officer that someone is inside, I let them know that I want to check on the person to check on their welfare, and typically give them the option of bringing them to the cop right to the door, or the COP is going to potentially make a forced entry and walk past the husband, let's say and go check on people. Now, let's say that we get a 911 Hang up. And upon meeting the caller at the front door, we are informed it was an accident that they dialed 911 and everything is fine. They then tell us that there are other people inside but no emergency exists. We don't see anything that would indicate an emergency. I don't hear anything that would give us exigent circumstances to enter the home. The question is, are we obligated to check on the rest of the residents welfare inside the home? And if we enter the home without consent or any other agency, would that be violating the person's rights? All right. This is a great question. And you know that this comes up all the time. So let's just kind of address it now. First of all, the laws, you know that the officer can recognize that he's did some research and the case was a little over the place. I will say that the majority of the cases seem to be supportive of the officer's actions. Right of going in of making sure that people okay nama one hangups, you know, can be pretty serious. But this is 2021. This is not your grandparents Police Department. There are a lot of stuff going down today that was would never have gone down even 10 years ago. So the game that we're playing today is way more advanced is way more protective of your liability. Okay. So with that said, Here's what I teach. Number one. What is the rule? The rule is this falls under the emergency aid exception. This is not a does not fall under community caretaking. We know that community caretaking does not apply to homes. Right, we have that from a US Supreme Court case called Coniglio versus strong caretaking Communicare taking is a pretty a relatively low standard where cops just want to make sure that people are okay; that's not the standard that we use anymore. We are definitely in the ballpark of exigency emergency urgency, and that falls under the emergency aid exception. So, therefore, in order for you to push past the husband, for example, and check on the occupants, you're going to be able to need to articulate some ongoing emergency where time is of the essence...

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Search & Seizure ShowBy Anthony Bandiero

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

15 ratings


More shows like The Search & Seizure Show

View all
The Joe Rogan Experience by Joe Rogan

The Joe Rogan Experience

226,832 Listeners

The Glenn Beck Program by Blaze Podcast Network

The Glenn Beck Program

25,681 Listeners

REAL AF with Andy Frisella by Andy Frisella #100to0

REAL AF with Andy Frisella

32,608 Listeners

Drinkin‘ Bros Podcast by Tetherball Academy Media

Drinkin‘ Bros Podcast

7,898 Listeners

Jocko Podcast by Jocko DEFCOR Network

Jocko Podcast

30,734 Listeners

Men in the Arena - Christian Men's Podcast by Jim Ramos

Men in the Arena - Christian Men's Podcast

371 Listeners

The Matt Walsh Show by The Daily Wire

The Matt Walsh Show

28,094 Listeners

Things Police See: Firsthand Accounts by Steven Gould: Police Officer, Background Investigator

Things Police See: Firsthand Accounts

1,207 Listeners

The Charlie Kirk Show by Charlie Kirk

The Charlie Kirk Show

49,732 Listeners

Shawn Ryan Show by Shawn Ryan

Shawn Ryan Show

42,616 Listeners

Street Cop Podcast by Street Cop Training

Street Cop Podcast

958 Listeners

Shots Fired Podcast by Kyle Shoberg

Shots Fired Podcast

167 Listeners

The Antihero Podcast by The Antihero Podcast

The Antihero Podcast

549 Listeners

The Tucker Carlson Show by Tucker Carlson Network

The Tucker Carlson Show

15,521 Listeners

Borderland: Dispatches with Katarina Szulc by IRONCLAD

Borderland: Dispatches with Katarina Szulc

38 Listeners