Opinion ID: 792539
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Protective Sweeps in Other Circumstances

Text: 16 Twice before, we have confronted the question of whether Buie protective sweeps may be conducted when officers are lawfully present in a home for a reason other than the in-home execution of an arrest warrant. See United States v. Gandia, 424 F.3d 255 (2d Cir.2005); United States v. Moran Vargas, 376 F.3d 112 (2d Cir.2004). In each of those cases, however, we concluded that we did not need to reach the issue because of the absence of specific and articulable facts to support a determination that reasonable suspicion existed. See Gandia, 424 F.3d at 257; Moran Vargas, 376 F.3d at 115. We now hold that a law enforcement officer present in a home under lawful process, such as an order permitting or directing the officer to enter for the purpose of protecting a third party, may conduct a protective sweep when the officer possesses articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, would warrant a reasonably prudent officer in believing that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the ... scene. Buie, 494 U.S. at 334, 110 S.Ct. 1093. 17 At the core of Terry, Long and Buie is the common understanding that the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement is sufficiently flexible to allow officers who have an objectively credible fear of danger to take basic precautions to protect themselves. Buie recognized that when officers are inside a home—ordinarily an enclosed, unfamiliar space—they are particularly vulnerable to surprise attacks. Id. at 333, 110 S.Ct. 1093. The Court's paramount concern in Buie was not why the officers were present in the home, but rather, why the officers might fear for their safety and what they could do in those circumstances to protect themselves. Buie 's logic therefore applies with equal force when officers are lawfully present in a home for purposes other than the in-home execution of an arrest warrant, at least where their presence may expose the officers to danger that is similar to, or greater than, that which they would face if they were carrying out an arrest warrant. See id. (noting the disadvantage of being on [an] adversary's `turf'). Indeed, officers executing an arrest warrant may at times enjoy the tactical benefits of counteracting a potential threat by engaging in careful planning and entering with significant force. By contrast, in other circumstances where they are present lawfully—such as, for example, responding to an emergency call or serving an order of protection—officers may be compelled to enter dangerous environments without an adequate opportunity to take effective prophylactic measures. 18 Several of our sister circuits have refused to confine the protective sweep doctrine to contexts in which officers execute arrest warrants. See, e.g., United States v. Martins, 413 F.3d 139, 150 (1st Cir.2005) (We hold ... that police who have lawfully entered a residence possess the same right to conduct a protective sweep whether an arrest warrant, a search warrant, or the existence of exigent circumstances prompts their entry.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, ___ S.Ct. ___, ___ L.Ed2d ___ (2005); Leaf v. Shelnutt, 400 F.3d 1070, 1086-88 (7th Cir.2005) ([I]t was not necessary for the officers to have made an arrest in order for their search of the apartment to be justified; the only question is whether the search was objectively reasonable.); United States v. Gould, 364 F.3d 578, 584 (5th Cir.2004) (en banc) ([W]e hold that arrest is not always, or per se, an indispensable element of an in-home protective sweep, and that although arrest may be highly relevant, particularly as tending to show the requisite potential of danger to the officers, that danger may also be established by other circumstances.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 437, 160 L.Ed.2d 317 (2004); United States v. Taylor, 248 F.3d 506, 513 (6th Cir.2001) ([T]he principle enunciated in Buie with regard to officers making an arrest—that the police may conduct a limited protective sweep to ensure the safety of those officers—applies with equal force to an officer left behind to secure the premises while a warrant to search those premises is obtained.); United States v. Garcia, 997 F.2d 1273, 1282 (9th Cir.1993) (officers permitted to conduct protective sweep following consent entry); United States v. Patrick, 959 F.2d 991, 996-97 (D.C.Cir.1992) (Once the police were lawfully on the premises, they were authorized to conduct a protective sweep based on their reasonable belief that one of its inhabitants was trafficking in narcotics.). But see United States v. Davis, 290 F.3d 1239, 1242 n. 4 (10th Cir.2002) (reading Buie narrowly to apply only in the context of an arrest); United States v. Reid, 226 F.3d 1020, 1027 (9th Cir.2000) (same). We agree with the majority of our sister circuits and adopt a commonsense understanding of the requirements of the Fourth Amendment in circumstances such as those presented here. 19 We are, of course, keenly aware that physical entry of the home is the chief evil against which the wording of the Fourth Amendment is directed. United States v. U.S. Dist. Ct., 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972). We note, however, that Buie 's progenitors, Terry and Long, did not concern searches stemming from arrests. See Terry, 392 U.S. at 24, 88 S.Ct. 1868; Long, 463 U.S. at 1049-50, 103 S.Ct. 3469. Moreover, Buie itself allowed for a protective sweep after an arrest had been completed. See Buie, 494 U.S. at 334-35, 110 S.Ct. 1093. These factors, along with Buie 's grounding in the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness standard, convince us that the fact of an arrest or an attempted arrest (with or without an arrest warrant) is not a necessary precondition to a lawful protective sweep. The restriction of the protective sweep doctrine only to circumstances involving arrests would jeopardize the safety of officers in contravention of the pragmatic concept of reasonableness embodied in the Fourth Amendment. Although, an arrest may be highly relevant to the determination of whether officers possess reasonable suspicion of danger, Gould, 364 F.3d at 584, the effectuation of an arrest, regardless of whether pursuant to a warrant, is not the sine qua non of a permissible protective sweep. See id. Accordingly, we hold that specific, articulable facts giving rise to a reasonable inference of danger may justify a protective sweep in circumstances other than during the in-home execution of an arrest warrant. 3