Hello again everyone. Welcome to Washington Gun Law tv. I'm Washington Gun Law President William Kirk. Thanks for joining us. Hope you all had a fantastic weekend over the weekend. I was deacon out on X or Twitter or whatever you call it. I saw this video right here, which is just raging through the twittersphere like wildfire. It has to do with a sheriff's deputy who really, I don't think ever read the Constitution and it has a lot of you wondering what could happen to the deputy, but more importantly, what exactly are your rights and obligations if you end up in this same situation as this woman here who unfortunately was arrested. And we're going to probably come to the conclusion unlawfully arrested. So today, let's spend a few minutes. Let's get you all educated and let's talk about when can police really enter your home. Okay, America, this is what we're talking about. We're talking about a video that was just running wild on the twittersphere over the weekend. Has to deal with a sheriff's deputy who decided to come to a noise complaint and then things got way, way out of hand. And why don't we just check out the video so you can see for yourself
And back up my house, back up. You do not have a right to be inside my house. Ill talk to you outside. Back up and talk to her outside. No, you don't have a no, don't talk to them. You do not have a warrant to be inside. I'll talk to you outside, officer. I will talk
To you. I'm not going to step outside your house. You do not have a warrant to inside of my house. I'm not inside your house. You're inside of my house. Lemme tell you why I'm right here. Because you walked in. No, because they opened the door and ran for me. That's why I'm not telling you I am. And I'm telling you, this is my home. Now that I'm inside your house. I own your house right now. Now that I'm inside your house. I own your house right now. Now that I'm inside your house. I own your house right now. Yes I do. Yes I do,
Bro. I know my rights. I don't care if you know your rights and I'm telling you, my dog will bite you if I tell her to bite you. Backpack, tell your buy and I'll talk to you outside. I'm not going to talk to you outside. What the fuck? What up we want inside my house. Bring your supervisor to my home now. Yeah, bring 'em all. We'll try. You have no right to be inside. No, don't. Please. You have no right to be inside because they opened the door. They're minors. I'm the adult here. This is my home. She said she's the adult. She's not my daughter. Get the out of my home. I'm not going to get out of your house. Then call your supervisor right now. Four 15 and put me in the front. I dog dare. I touch. This is my home, bro. You're in my house. I'm telling you're in my house. You're in. You're in my house. I'm telling you're in my house. Stop. Just stop asking. Stop. Just stop. Just stop. Just stop. You're good. Get off me. I'm not hurting you. No, she's good. She's good. Am I hurting you? You're good, mom. Did I hurt you? Did I hurt you? Did I hurt you? I
Told you right?
Did I hurt you? I told you. Did I touch you? Been recorded ever once. Did I touch you? Keep this on video. I am, I am. Did I touch you, your supervisor right now? Lemme on against wall. No, they don't have to. No, don't go inside. Don't go inside. Have to go inside. Don't go inside. I just want to deescalate. Don't go inside. Done. Keep eye. Don't listen him. Oh, look at all these cops. Come eat.
Okay, now it is important. Context is always important. So we need to understand the context of how this call occurred because there are some people out there, Andrew Branca, who thinks that every police officer is always acting within the scope of their duty. So we want to kind of break it down so that you could actually be educated should you ever end up in this situation. Now, the woman who was arrested and the homeowner here has made at least one statement as to what led to this contact to begin with. I'm going to read that statement again. I'm not vouching for what she says here, but this is her own account of what led up to this contact. On July 3rd, I was enjoying my backyard with my family, laughing and talking, which caused my neighbor to call the cops as it interrupted his sleep not knowing there was a cop outside my home.
A friend went to leave and when he opened the door, saw a cop about 20 feet from the door. He then closed the door to come and get me to deal with the visitor. I wanted to clarify this as there are many people assuming that I opened the door to this cop. I know better. At that time, the cop decided he had every right to rush my door, open it and enter without consent or a warrant. Well, when we start breaking down the video here, we will see that yeah, the officer clearly does in fact force his way into the home. And even though he makes multiple inconsistent statements about whether he is in the home, I'm not in the home actually, I am in the home and now I own your house because I'm in the home. There is no doubt that he has passed the threshold from curtilage into the home itself.
So there is no doubt that the officer is inside the home at that point, which begs the question, when can police lawfully enter your home without a warrant? Because clearly there is no search warrant here. Well, this can be a fairly complicated area law or we can try to break it down real simply. And that's what we're going to try to do here because we believe that there are really four instances. If you take a look at laws on a national level in which officers could enter a home without an arrest warrant or search warrant, they are as follows. Number one, flight from a felony. Now, this is not just commission of a felony. This is flight from a felony. So police believe or have probable cause to believe that you've committed a felony. They then pursue you. The pursuit then leads into your home.
Police would be allowed in that situation to enter the home, to make the arrest so long as they had probable cause. Plain view. This is one that I see often in the college dormitories. Police come by, they knock on the door, the door opens, there's alcohol containers everywhere, and everyone inside the dorm room happens to look underage cop knocks on a door, a person opens the door and there's clearly a meth lab, and they're cooking meth in the back of the home. And it's in plain view of the officer. Can the officer enter the home under those situations to investigate and make an arrest? In all likelihood, yes, he may. Number three, exigent circumstances, and this is kind of a catchall for, there is a serious, serious situation going on inside the home. Police are called to a possible domestic violence offense. They show up and they hear clear signs of a struggle.
They have hear clear sounds of a person absolutely getting beat up. Can they enter the home to stop the commission of the crime and to save lives? Yes, they may police arrive on a noise complaint, but the noise complaint turns out that the back of the house is completely on fire. Can they enter the home to try to save individuals in the home? Yes, they may do that under exigent circumstances. They arrive at a home because somebody has collapsed. They realize that maybe it's a drug overdose or something like that. Again, they could enter the home under exigent circumstances. A noise complaint, however, which is all this is a noise complaint, does not quantify or qualify as an exigent circumstance. And then finally, and the most common way that police officers will end up inside a person's home is through their permission or what we call consent.
Now, a little practice tip, anytime police are asking you permission to do something, what that tells you is they don't have the legal authority to do that until you agree to it or acquiesce to it. Now, you may have nothing to hide whatsoever, but any good defense attorney is going to tell you that anytime police are asking to enter your home, they're probably not doing it for any good purpose. And do you have the right to refuse entry into the home? Yes you do. Do you have the right to slam the door in the cop's face? Theoretically you could. Now, in this situation, this woman would've had to shove the cop out of the doorway. That inevitably would've led to an escalation of events, and it already escalated anyways just by her merely voicing her opinion. Now, when we break down this video, I will tell you that the homeowner did a pretty good job here.
Does the officer force his way into the home? Well, I think this video here clearly shows that. So right there, his presence inside the home is going to be absolutely positively without lawful authority. There's no exigent circumstance. This was a potential noise complaint here. Okay, this and like dog bites are the two most innocuous thing that police officers will typically deal with. Secondly, the homeowner says, Hey, it's not that I'm not willing to talk to you, it's just we're going to need to go outside and talk on the front porch, which is appropriate. And the officer should have taken her up on that invite. But no, no. Officer pissed off here decides that he now owns the home and he's going to stay put. Now, if the officer had any credibility, he destroys it himself with the following statements, I'm inside your home because they opened the door and ran for me.
Even if that was the case, that does not provide probable cause, nor does it provide the exigent circumstances necessary for the officer to come into the home. Remember, he was here merely for a noise complaint. Secondly, he then states in sequence the following, I'm not going to step outside of your home. I'm not inside your home, followed by because I'm inside your home. I now own it. That, of course, is the most offensive statement of anyone and probably the single statement that should result in this officer's termination. And then finally, at one point, the officer points to one of her children and says, she says she's the adult. Now, I don't know the age of this woman, but she looks pretty young. And if I'm right about that, that means her kids are going to in fact still be young children. So for this officer to point at some young child to say, well, she says she's the adult that absolutely discredits and makes him look even more asinine than he already did.
So did the officer have right to enter this home? In our opinion, no, he did not. Is this arrest going to be lawful? No, it is not. Does this homeowner likely have a lawsuit? Yeah, she probably does. Okay. Now, just to give you a refresher, there are essentially four instances in which an officer can actually enter into your home without a warrant. And they are as follows. Number one, the person is actually on flight from a felony. Number two, there is evidence of criminal activity within plain view. Number three, there are exigent circumstances which requires officers to go into the home. Or number four, the homeowner or some other adult who appears to have authority over the home has granted consent. Absent any one of those circumstances, and absent a warrant, the entry into your home by a law enforcement officer will be in fact unlawful and therefore unconstitutional under the fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Listen, we're going to go ahead and link up everything down below so that you guys can all geek out on this for yourself. Maybe you got some questions about this or anything else related to what's left of our rights. If you do, you should know how to get ahold of Washington gun law by now. But if you don't, that's okay. That information's down there in the description box. Maybe you got an idea for video we should be doing around here. If you do, go ahead and click on that link. Let us know most of the good ideas we come up with here. Candidly, we don't come up with at all. Maybe you just want to be part of our monthly newsletter. The ability to subscribe to that is all down there in the description box. And then finally, and most importantly, America, let's remember that part of being in the lawful and responsible gun owner, like we talk about all the time here, is to know what the law is in every situation, how it applies to you in any instance that you may find yourself. Until next time, thanks for watching and stay safe.
YouTube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV64olybnHU
Credit: William Kirk Washington Gun Law