I am no lawyer, and have never even played one on TV.SFTifoso wrote:Well, isn't what he did technically unconstitutional? Didn't he need a warrant to enter Abby's apartment? Seems to me like he was acting on his own, in order to get this "satanist" cult. Or it could be a small town thing, where cops don't usually call for backup.
As I understand it, yes, police are specifically prohibited from entering a private residence without a warrant, court order or some other supervisory instrument under ordinary circumstances.
As I understand it also, however, police are allowed to break down a door and enter without a warrant or similar incident in the presence of "probable cause", meaning that there is clear reason to believe that a crime is being commited, or that a crime is imminent, or (and this may vary by jurisdiction) that evidence of a crime is or is about to be destroyed. My description is casual and probably unwittingly excerpted from some stupid cop show on TV. Examples of "probable cause" would be fire, shots fired, people being thrown out windows without the windows being first opened to accommodate them, that general sort of thing. You are warned not to be guided by this description, either, it's apt to be very far from exhaustive.
The short story is that police can legally respond in an appropriate manner to an emergency.