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House to house searches

captdave77

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The ODT's official HVAC guy
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I was thinking about what would happen in my neighborhood if there was a suspect on the run. If the police knocked on my door telling me they need to search my house for some bad guy, can I say "he's not here and you're not coming in"?
 
you could...and they would likely have the warrant faxed over in 60 seconds. you wouldnt be in the wrong to demand it and they should respect that until the warrant comes over. not wanting your house searched for a mass murderer that is said to be 99% likely in your immediate area is going to qualify as probable cause in all likelihood though. :) imagine the swarming activity over that 60 seconds on your premises.

in this instance and given the circumstances, i would comply without pressing the issue unless someone came at me in a disrespectful way during their initial approach. i am sure they are pretty polished in their approach, but who knows. they'd be pretty bored searching my house...dirty kids rooms, a couple of dogs jumping all over them, and guns all over the place...boring boring boring.

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In gonna say, yes. But, be prepared for a warrant in the next 30 minutes, followed closely by an Extremely thorough trashing of your place.
yeah...i think the search would be excessively thorough :)
 
If you have nothing to hide (say the person they are lookin for) why would you not let them? I would let them, it would be quick and I'm sure they wouldn't be Richards about it. It's your right to say no. But, you see all the people talking about wanting to catch the guy, why not be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
 
Faxed hell, they probably have a judge nearby with preprepared warrants only laxking your address. In other words, saying no would not be wise.
 
you could...and they would likely have the warrant faxed over in 60 seconds. you wouldnt be in the wrong to demand it and they should respect that until the warrant comes over. not wanting your house searched for a mass murderer that is said to be 99% likely in your immediate area is going to qualify as probable cause in all likelihood though. :) imagine the swarming activity over that 60 seconds on your premises.

I'm not a criminal atty, but I'm pretty sure that refusing a search cannot constitute probable cause. Otherwise, the 4th Amendment would mean next to nothing, right?
 
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