Warrantless Searches: Do You Know the Difference between ‘Community Caretaking’ and ‘Render[ing] Emergency Assistance?’

From the DA’s Desk  
By Robert Phillips  
Deputy District Attorney (ret.) 

Case and Legal Issues 

• Entry of a residence to conduct a welfare check 

• Having an objectively reasonable basis for believing that an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury vs. probable cause or a reasonable suspicion 

Summary: Where a defendant had a history of mental illness and alcohol abuse, officers responded to a call at his residence after a former girlfriend reported that he was inside his home threatening to commit suicide, based upon a telephone call he just made to her. With the defendant refusing to respond to attempts to contact him, officers forced their way into his residence. He was eventually found in a closet, from which he emerged holding what appeared to be a firearm. Shot and wounded by an officer, the defendant was later criminally charged with assaulting the officer. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the warrantless entry of the residence, ruling that the correct standard for the entry of the residence was whether there was “objectively reasonable basis for believing that an ....