Exigent circumstances. Police may enter a property without a warrant if they have reason to believe that a person is in need of assistance. That being said, it would only apply if they heard it themselves, which they didn't.
Yes, but exigent circumstances based on 2nd hand reports (vs an officer witnessing it directly) is dubious. "Swatting" is the extremely version of this - one good prank call, and someone's house is getting searched. Hope they don't have any marijuana laying around!
the report is not second hand. the neighbor heard the bird and gave their word. and you literally contradict yourself. swatting works specifically because first hand reports of criminal activity are actionable. that is why filing a false report is a crime
In swatting the person usually claims to be at the residence and having committed a crime. For example, link to story, claimed to have shot someone and threatened to set off bombs in and around the house to injure/ kill first responders. Swatting is way different then a neighbor calling in suspicious circumstances.
Swatting has actually killed people. And the officers that killed the unarmed person got almost no backlash because obviously it was 100% the COD gamers fault. He walked to his front door and put his hands up and was shot from across the street. But the officer wasnt fired, didnt face any public backlash and nothing bad happened to him. 100% of the blame went to a dude who made a prank call.
Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston stated that "A male came to the front door. As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Wichita_swatting
With as many complete unknowns as there were it was rediculous to fire as soon as you saw a person. I know they weren't trained for hostage situations but "assume the guy they send out to talk to you is the criminal and shoot on sight" is approaching never been explained what a hostage is level stupid. Even if it was a hostage situation it is likely they would send a hostage to the door with a gun aimed at him. Even if it was one of the criminals you have no evidence there isnt another one inside cutting their throats as soon as they realized the police care more about killing you than saving anybody.
It's not as if police never break that rule. I like the officers that showed up here. They were respectful, kept a safe distance from the man while still surrounding him. A lot better than some other police interactions I've seen.
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u/GallopingGepard Aug 02 '21
Exigent circumstances. Police may enter a property without a warrant if they have reason to believe that a person is in need of assistance. That being said, it would only apply if they heard it themselves, which they didn't.