KS: Once emergency ended, entry should have too

An entry under the emergency doctrine where an unresponsive person needed no aid improperly evolved into a criminal investigation. Suppressed. Kansas cases should align with Brigham City, but the search here was still excessive. State v. Neighbors, 2014 Kan. LEXIS 177 (April 25, 2014):

A warrantless entry into a private dwelling by law enforcement officers must fall within a recognized exception to the warrant requirement to be considered reasonable and valid under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 15 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights. In this case, we consider whether a warrantless entry by police and their ensuing search and seizure were justified under the emergency aid exception when officers entered a locked apartment to assist an unresponsive person but then began a criminal investigation once the individual was awake and clearly not needing emergency medical assistance. We hold the officers unreasonably exceeded the permissible scope of their warrantless entry and agree with the district court that the drug evidence obtained as a result should be suppressed.

In so ruling, we realign our previous Kansas test for applying the emergency aid exception (also referred to in our caselaw as the “emergency doctrine”) with more recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court. See, e.g., Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 403, 406-07, 126 S. Ct. 1943, 164 L. Ed. 2d 650 (2006) (emergency aid exception allows warrantless entry into a dwelling when officers have objectively reasonable basis to believe an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with serious injury). We reverse the Court of Appeals decision reversing the district court’s suppression ruling and remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with our ruling.

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One problem with the current Kansas test, even as modified by the Court of Appeals in Geraghty, is that it jumbles the community caretaking function recognized in Cady with the emergency aid exception cases. See Shapiro, The Road to Fourth Amendment Erosion Is Paved with Good Intentions: Examining Why Florida Should Limit the Community Caretaker Exception, 6 Fla. Int’l. U. L. Rev. 351, 357-60, 361-64 (Spring 2011) (defining community caretaker exception and differentiating it from the emergency aid exception). In other words, emergency aid is a limited exception applicable only when aiding an occupant who is seriously injured or imminently threatened with injury. See Brigham City, 547 U.S. at 400, 403. Our statement of the exception needs to be more constrained.

The Mitchell three-part test previously followed in Kansas applies the exception to circumstances involving the immediate need for assistance for the protection of life or property. But the doctrine’s extension to property protection is inconsistent with current federal caselaw and the rationale for the exception. The Brigham City Court clearly reflects that the emergency aid exception turns on whether there is “an objectively reasonable basis for believing an occupant is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury.” 547 U.S. at 400. That statement accurately defines the emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement.