Residential Entries and “Fresh Pursuit”

Residential Entries and “Fresh Pursuit”  

Robert C. Phillips
Deputy District Attorney (Ret.)
June, 2021

We previously reviewed the recent United States Supreme Court decision of Stanton v. Sims (2013) 134 S.Ct. 3, where it was held that it is an unsettled issue whether chasing a fleeing misdemeanant into one’s home (and the curtilage of his home) in “hot pursuit” (i.e., on the suspect’s heels) is constitutional.  In its decision, the High Court noted that California courts have allowed officers to do so despite some lower federal court decisions to the contrary, and that at the very least, the offending officer is entitled to qualified immunity in a federal civil suit.

The Sims decision, however, does not address the related issue of the constitutionality of an officer making a warrantless entry into a residence while in “fresh pursuit” of a misdemeanor suspect.  Again, the courts are in disagreement.

The California Supreme Court has specifically addressed this issue.  In People v. Thompson (2006) 38 Cal.4th 811, California’s High Court ruled that entering a house, without consent or a warrant, to arrest a suspected driving–while-under-the-influence suspect, after a private citizen had personally observed the defendant’s driving and followed him home while calling the police, was lawful, at least as a general rule.  Such an entry, when the officers are engaged in the immediate investigation and pursuit of a suspect, even though the crime did not occur in their presence as occurred in Sims, can be labeled as a “fresh pursuit.” 

Not surprisingly, however, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal disagrees.   In Hopkins v. Bonvicino (9th Cir. 2009) 573 F.3rd 752, the Ninth Circuit held that California’s interpretation under Thompson is wrong, and that a warrantless entry into a home to arrest a misdemeanor DUI suspect is a Fourth Amendment violation.  Specifically, the ....

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