AJ 103 Chapter 12

General definition for “Exigent Circumstances”

A situation in which there is a compelling need for official action or a condition in which real, immediate, and serious consequences will certainly occur.

Simple definition of “Exigent Circumstances”

An emergency.

Balancing Test

Warrantless search or seizure caused by exigent circumstances are only justified if the need for officer action outweighed the intrusiveness.

As the likelihood, urgency, and magnitude of a threat increase, so does (blank)

the justification for and scope of police preventive action.

Exception to the Balancing Test

Intrusion into a home is only justified under exigent circumstances if the officers had probable cause to believe that a threat would materialize.

The Reasonable Officer Test.

Whether the facts, as they appeared at the moment of entry, would lead a reasonable, experienced officer to believe that there was an urgent need to render aid or take action

Additional Application of Reasonable Officer Test

How would the PUBLIC react if there was a threat or emergency but the officer did nothing to respond to it.

Because an officer’s training and experience can be critical in translating observations into reasonable conclusions, (blank)

the courts will also take into account the responding officers’ training and experience as it pertains to such matters.

Reliability of Information

The importance of reliable information decreases as the need for immediate action increases.

Magnitude of Potential Harm

The most weighty of all the relevant circumstances is the magnitude of the potential harm that might result if the officers delayed taking action.

Harm was “imminent”

Means that the officers must have reasonably believed that the threat would have materialized before they would have been able to obtain a warrant.

Imminent

It is reasonable to anticipate the threatened injury will occur in such a short time that it is not feasible to obtain a search warrant. (Definition)

Officer’s Motivations in Exigent Circumstances

The officers’ motivation for taking action is unimportant in applying the balancing test in emergency aid and investigative emergency situations because their mental state has nothing to do with the magnitude of the threat or the reasonableness of their response.

Community Caretaking

Situations totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence, and yet the officers believed they needed to act and their belief was objectively reasonable.

Officer Motivation for Community Caretaking

In community caretaking cases the officers’ motivation is significant because the word caretaking implies that the officers must have been motivated by a caretaking interest.

Officer’s Response

No matter how serious a situation is, a warrantless search and/or seizure will not be upheld if the response was unreasonable for the circumstance. Conduct must be limited to what is necessary to address the threat.

Imminent Danger to a Person

Intrusive and immediate responses are almost always warranted when addressing a threat to a person’s health or safety.

Person Injured

Injury is considered a exigent circumstance only if the officers reasonably believed that a person’s safety or life was at risk.

Sick Person

Officer knocks on the door of an individual they know is sick, but they don’t answer, making it exigent.

Unresponsive Person

An individual who is not responding to officers and additional circumstances raise concern to their safety it is an exigent circumstance.

Shooting Outside Home 

A shooting occurred outside a home, exigent circumstance.

Shooting Inside Home 

Shooting inside home and no response when knocking at the door, exigent circumstance.

Irrational and Violent

An individual who is acting irrational and poses a reasonable threat to those around them warrants the establishment of exigent circumstance.

Child in Danger

If officers hear that a child is in danger, automatic exigent circumstance.

911 Hang-ups

Hanging up on 911 is not exigent, but if additional circumstances like hearing shouting over the phone, wont return calls, and the scene of where the call was made is suspicious, it is exigent.

Domestic Violence 

Always an exigent circumstance as long as officers reasonably believe one of the parties involved is in danger.

Missing Persons 

Exigent entry into a home to search for a missing person is justified if
1) Officers believed that the report was reliable
2) Circumstances around disappearance were suspicious
3) Exigent entry was necessary to confirm or dispel suspicion 

Drug Labs

Exigent entry into drug labs is justified if the drug being produced posed a threat. (ex. materials used to produce PCP had the capability to blow up 🤯 )

Dead Bodies

Usually warrant exigent circumstance. If officers detect the odor of a dead body they are also allowed to investigate that further as it could lead to them saving lives.

Investigative Emergency/Threats 

Reasonable threat that evidence of a crime would be destroyed or corrupted, or that a suspect will soon be in flight.

Destruction of Evidence

Exigent circumstance since evidence could have been destroyed if officers waited for a warrant.

Requirements for Destruction of Evidence

1) Reason to believe that there was destructible evidence on the property
2) The crime being investigated must warrant a potential jail sentence
3) The officers must’ve been aware that someone had the potential or reason to destroy evidence

A common indication that evidence was about to be destroyed is that, upon arrival to execute a search warrant, (blank)

the officers saw or heard a commotion inside the residence which, based on the their training and experience, was reasonably interpreted as indicating the occupants were destroying evidence or were about to start.

Examples of Destruction Indicators

• Sounds of objects being moved

• Repeated flushing outside a bathroom

• Immediate shutting of door and shouting after seeing officers

Hot Pursuits (Exigent Circumstances)

1) Probable cause to arrest
2) Arrest started in a public place
3) Arrestee retreated to home or other private place

Fresh Pursuits

Not physical chases, but rather an attempt to figure out the whereabouts of a suspect in order to arrest them.

Entry based on Fresh Pursuit will be justified if 

1) Felony has been committed by suspect 
2) Officers have been diligent in their search for the suspect.
3) They have located the guy
4) Reason to suspect he might flee

Evidence of Flight includes:

Seeing a fresh trail of blood leading from a murder scene to the suspect’s house, and knowing that a violent parolee-at-large was trying to avoid arrest by staying at different homes.

Similarities of Community Caretaking and Exigent Circumstance

1) Situations that requires the aid of police
2) Subject to the balancing test

Community Caretaking situations are not as (blank)

dangerous as exigent circumstances, so less intrusiveness is warranted.

Officers are not required to (blank)

utilize the least intrusive means of defusing the emergency.

Sense of Proportion 

Officers responded to the threat in a reasonable manner

After entry to a home, a (blank) is not warranted as most evidence of threats will be in plain view.

full search

Trespassing

Walking onto a persons curtilage and looking through windows is considered non-intrusive if it is to check on a person’s wellbeing.

If the emergency resulted from a dangerous condition (e.g., a meth lab), officers may do those things that are (blank)

reasonably necessary to eliminate the threat, including a search.

Officers may access the contents of a cell phone without a warrant if (blank)

they reasonably believed that immediate access was necessary to defuse an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury

Officers who have entered a home or business pursuant to exigent circumstances must leave within a (blank)

reasonable amount of time after the threat to people, property, or evidence has been eliminated.

When does the emergency end for explosives and dangerous chemicals?

when the danger has been eliminated

he exigency caused by a residential or commercial structure fire does not automatically end when the fire is under control or even with the “dousing of the last flame.” Instead, it ends after (blank)

investigators have determined the cause and origin of the fire,and have determined that the premises were safe for re-occupancy.

When a fire is put out, and arson is discovered as the reason, a (blank) is now required since it is now a (blank)

• warrant

• criminal investigation

The emergency created by a murder or non-fatal shooting in a residence ends after (blank)

officers had determined there were no suspects or other victims on the scene, the victim had been removed, and there was no threat to evidence located inside

Exceptions to when officers may reenter without a warrant after vacating the premises 

1. evidence in plain view

2. due to exigent circumstances, the evidence couldn’t have been retrieved before the threat was neutralized

3. officers had yet to surrender control of the premises

Definition of a special needs detentions or community caretaking 

temporary seizure of a person that serves a public interest other than the need to determine if the detainee had committed a crime or was committing one

When are these special need detentions needed?

1. For public interest

2. the public interest outweighs intrusiveness 

It is often that special need detentions must not have any sort of investigation into a crime. To help with this confusion, the courts explained the difference is (blank)

the officer’s primary objective

Another objective that often falls into the gray area between special needs and crime control is (blank)

public safety

one of the objectives of DUI checkpoints is to arrest impaired motorists, these checkpoints fall into the category of (blank)

special interest detentions because their co-objective is to reduce the death and destruction that results from drunk driving.

it is necessary to determine the weight of the public interest that was served by taking into account the following 3 things

1. its importance to the public

2. the likelihood that the detention would effectively serve that public interest

3. whether there were any less intrusive alternatives that were readily available.

Although a special needs detention is much less intrusive than an arrest or search, it will not be upheld unless (blank)

it serves a sufficiently important public interest

The strength of the need to detain will also depend on the (blank)

likelihood that the detention would effectively serve that need

the need to detain a person would necessarily be greater if there were (blank)

no less intrusive alternatives that were readily available.

mere existence of a less intrusive alternative will not invalidate a detention unless the officers were (blank)

negligent in failing to recognize and implement it

4 circumstances in how the courts determine intrusiveness 

1. the manner in which the detainee was stopped

2. whether officers utilized officer-safety precautions

3. the length of the detention

4. whether it was conducted in a place and in a manner that would have caused embarrassment or unusual anxiety

special needs detention is not apt to be viewed as excessively intrusive if (blank)

The interaction was brief and this also applies to road blocks and checkpoints

the most urgent is an officer’s reasonable belief that the detainee was (blank)

in imminent danger or was otherwise in need of immediate assistance

Scenarios the detainee is in imminent danger

1. Sick or injured

2. missing person

3. mental health issues

4. warn of danger

Locating (blank) is also vital to an officers’ search some may not realize they heard or saw something important

witnesses

circumstances that would justify a detention of a person as a potential witness would also warrant a detention of (blank)

that person to determine if he was the perpetrator.

Circumstances to search for witnesses

1. the seriousness of the crime

2. likelihood the detained witnessed the crime

3. importance of information

An officer’s belief that a person was a witness to a crime may also be based on circumstantial evidence, such as the following 4 circumstances

1. the crime had just occurred 

2. the perpetrator fled toward a certain area

3. the detainee was the only person in that area or one of only a few

4. it was likely that anyone in

   the area would have seen the perpetrator.

Officers who are conducting a search, making an arrest, or processing a crime scene may, of course, take (blank) of the location

unquestioned police command

Most common situations when police secure the location

1. Car stops

2. high risk residential areas

3. executing arrest warrants

4. parole and probation searches

5. detention while detaining others

6. executing a civil court order

In the absence of reasonable suspicion, certain special needs detentions are permitted on school grounds because of the (blank)

overriding need to provide students with a safe environment and to restrict access by outsiders

School detentions are permitted in the following circumstances

1. If detention was done by a school resource officer

2. proper school related interest

Detentions of students are permitted so long as the stop was (blank)

not arbitrary, capricious, or harassing.

a nonstudent may be detained during school hours to confirm he (blank)

has registered with the office as required by law

Huff v. City of Burbank

Facts?

Issue?

Holding?

Facts: Rumors of a shooting at a school led to a investigation. Went to the home to investigate and went after the suspect after they refused to allow them in.

Issue: Did entering without a warrant violate the 4th ammendment

Holding: No, the officers acted correctly since lives were at risk

Kentucky v. King

Facts?

Issue?

Holding?

Facts: In pursuit of suspect that dealt with cocaine after getting information from an undercover informant. The officers could smell pot and heard shuffling from the under the door that could have suggested that evidence was being destroyed. In the home they found evidence against him.

Issue: Does the exclusionary rule, which forbids the use of illegally seized evidence except in emergency situations, apply when the emergency is created by lawful police actions?

Holding: The entry was unlawful due to the fact that there was no evidence besides the shuffling that indicated the King knew the police were even there.