{"id":36555,"date":"2019-02-26T08:48:04","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T13:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=36555"},"modified":"2019-02-26T08:48:04","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T13:48:04","slug":"in-walk-through-of-house-for-non-investigatory-reason-after-unconscious-person-taken-to-hospital-justified-by-community-caretaking-function","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=36555","title":{"rendered":"IN: Walk through of house for non-investigatory reason after unconscious person taken to hospital justified by community caretaking function"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officers responded to a 911 call that a child was unconscious. After the child went to the hospital and the parent went in police vehicle, an officer at the scene did a walk through to insure there was no one else or animals left there and then secure the house. Blood spots were seen. Before the officer could leave, he received a call the child had died. He secured the house for a search warrant. The warrantless walk through and observations were valid based on the community caretaking function. Price v. State<\/a>, 2019 Ind. App. LEXIS 82 (Feb. 22, 2019).
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P29 Secondly, we note that “[t]he very point of exigent circumstances is that officers are confronted with a situation where time is of the essence and immediate action required.” Montgomery, 904 N.E.2d at 381. As stated by the Supreme Court, “[w]e do not question the right of the police to respond to emergency situations …. The need to protect or preserve life or avoid serious injury is justification for what would be otherwise illegal.” Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 392-93, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). We cannot find many situations more urgent than a child who has been found unconscious, was on his way to the hospital, and an officer’s need to save that child’s life by looking for apparent dangerous substances in the apartment that the child might possibly have consumed, and in turn offering that information to doctors to aid in the child’s treatment. Additionally, we note that unlike the majority of cases discussing exigent circumstances, Detective Richhart’s entry was not motivated by an intent to apprehend a suspect or to seize incriminating evidence. See, e.g., McDermott, 877 N.E.2d at 474. One of the concerns Detective Richhart had prior to entering Price’s apartment was to assist the doctors with any information that would aid in B.P.’s treatment. Detective Richhart was unaware that B.P. had died when he performed his cursory sweep, and the record is silent as to whether the walkthrough was geared at gathering incriminating evidence.<\/p>\n

P30 Moreover, we find that Detective Richhart’s warrantless entry into Price’s home constituted a legitimate exercise of the community caretaking function of the police. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officers responded to a 911 call that a child was unconscious. After the child went to the hospital and the parent went in police vehicle, an officer at the scene did a walk through to insure there was no one … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-caretaking-function"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36556,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36555\/revisions\/36556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}