It has been said that a man’s home is his castle. Without doubt, you have the greatest degree of Fourth Amendment protection in the privacy of your own home. Nonetheless, under some circumstances, the police are permitted to enter your home and conduct a limited search without a search warrant. If the police are already lawfully in your home, for instance, because you invited them in, they may seize obvious contraband which is in “plain view.” As with all previous scenarios, it is most important to know your rights when the police don’t have a warrant because, if they do have a warrant, there isn’t much left you can do. Like the song says, if they’ve got a warrant, they’re gonna com in.

There is a myriad of ways the police can develop probable cause to secure a search warrant for your home, which we will look at later in the chapter on police investigative tactics. My focus in the first three chapters of this book is protecting your privacy rights. Once the police actually have a search warrant for your home, there is little you can do except keep quiet, ask for a lawyer and not make matters worse by telling stories, admitting to a crime or showing them where you keep your dope (see again: diarrhea of the mouth). Therefore, for the purpose of Chapter 3 we will be look at the exceptions to the search warrant requirement.

Unlike the scenarios with pedestrians or vehicles, it is not sufficient to consider whether the police have reasonable suspicion or probable cause to search a home, because the police are always required to secure a search warrant, unless you give them consent. In some rare circumstances the police can enter your home and conduct a limited search without a search warrant, but they must still obtain a warrant to complete their search, unless, of course, you forget everything you have read so far and give them consent. Just because the police don’t have a warrant in-hand, however, doesn’t mean you can barricade the door. As always, clarify if the officer is making a request or a demand.

For example, the police may enter your home in an emergency. They may also enter without consent or a search warrant under “exigent circumstances” such as the destruction of evidence, in hot pursuit of a felon or with knowledge of a resident’s valid arrest warrant. Once inside your home, the police can seize what is observed in “plain view.” In addition, if the police make a lawful arrest inside a home, they can make a warrantless search of the area around the arrestee to secure weapons or contraband. Let’s take a look at each of these possible situations to see how they impact your rights and the authority of the police... (click here to read more)