Opinion ID: 901816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Proposed Standard Unclear and Ambiguous

Text: [¶ 81.] The standard and application of the community caretaker exception espoused by the majority opinion leaves too much ambiguity and too little direction for law enforcement. Allowing police to enter a private home based on a mere possibility that someone inside might be in danger obliterates the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. The majority states at one point that the purpose of community caretaking must be the objectively reasonable independent and substantial justification for the intrusion; the police action must be apart from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of criminal evidence; and the officer should be able to articulate specific facts that, taken with rational inferences, reasonably warrant the intrusion. Supra ¶ 41. The standard advanced and the standard actually applied by the majority, however, are quite different. [¶ 82.] The accepted standard for the community caretaker exception to the Fourth Amendment comes from Cady, 413 U.S. 433, 93 S.Ct. 2523 (involving the search of a vehicle for a gun reasonably believed to be located within). Cady emphasized the importance of reasonableness in construing Fourth Amendment protections. Id. at 439, 93 S.Ct. at 2527. The only controlling test provided by the United States Supreme Court limits this exception to vehicles. Further, this test is not only limited to the search of vehicles, but it also requires that the police action involved be totally divorced from the detection, investigation, or acquisition of evidence relating to the violation of a criminal statute. Id. at 441, 93 S.Ct. at 2528. The standard provided by the majority does not include this language. The majority requires a lower threshold than the one provided by the United States Supreme Court for vehicles. The Fourth Amendment's strong protections against entry into the home without a warrant should require greater protections and more stringent standards than those afforded to automobiles.