Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously found that police who peer into windows and see a fight going on inside can forcibly enter without announcement and without a warrant.

It’s a tricky issue. We certainly don’t want police waiting around for a warrant when there’s clearly something amiss. But then, we don’t want them peeping in windows looking for reasons to break down doors, either. It is comforting that the Court said objective facts are important in determining whether or not an officer may legally enter a home, not the officer’s motives.

That would presumably rule out situations in which an officer misinterprets playful desert games for domestic violence.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 at 4:44 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.