Opinion ID: 1788217
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Applying the Law to this Case

Text: We must decide whether the deputies in this case acted reasonably in entering Riggs's apartment without a warrant because they feared that the unattended girl's caretaker might need medical attention. The girl was four years old, naked, and wandering through the apartment complex at 3 a.m. on a January night. She was disoriented. The deputies were never told that she came from Riggs's apartment. Rather, while knocking on doors one-by-one, they noticed that his apartment was the only one on the second floor whose door was open. They also noticed light coming from inside. After receiving no response to three dozen loud knocks, which brought some of the neighbors outside, they entered the apartment. Riggs contends that the deputies acted unreasonably. He asserts, first, that the deputies lacked a sufficient objective basis for fearing a medical emergency; and second, that they lacked a sufficient objective basis for connecting any emergency with his apartment. We address each argument in turn. The first question is whether the deputies had reasonable grounds to believe that the girl's caretaker might need medical attention. We conclude that they had sufficient empirical evidence to support their belief. First, the girl was only four years old. See Miller, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d at 415 n. 4 (emphasizing the age of the child as an objective factor indicating an emergency). Second, she was alone outside in the middle of the night in January. See Dawn O., 128 Cal.Rptr. at 854 (emphasizing the lateness of the hour). Third, she was not wearing any clothes. See Miller, 81 Cal.Rptr.2d at 415 (emphasizing that the child was wearing only a diaper). Together, these facts seem to indicate either grossly negligent supervision or an emergency involving the child's caretaker. The second question is whether the deputies had reasonable grounds to connect the feared emergency to the apartment they entered. We acknowledge that the deputies were uncertain that the girl came from Riggs's apartment. Unlike the situation in Eason, where the young boy led the police to a particular apartment and said, Mommy's in there, 546 So.2d at 58, the girl in this case did not lead the deputies in any particular direction. A search based on a feared medical emergency, however, does not require certainty. The Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches, requires only that the police reasonably believe that an emergency exists. Here, strong circumstantial evidence pointed to Riggs's apartment. The officers found the girl close to an apartment complex, through which she had been wandering. They logically turned their attention to the complex, commencing a door-to-door search. They were drawn to Riggs's apartment because it was 3 a.m. and his was the only apartment on that floor with an open door. Light emanated from the apartment, indicating occupancy. Yet the deputies received no response to three dozen knocks, which were loud enough to bring neighbors out of their apartments. This is precisely the cluster of clues that one would expect to find in the event a caretaker had become incapacitated and a young child had wandered off. The deputies' suspicion of a medical emergency therefore was based on reasonable inferences drawn from the available evidence. We cannot accept Riggs's argument that the deputies should have simply walked away from his open door, or that they should have searched the rest of the complex for other open doors before entering his apartment. Given their reasonable fear of a medical emergency, the deputies did not have time to retreat and weigh their options. As the First Circuit recently explained, officers fearing emergencies often need [to make] an on-the-spot judgment based on incomplete information and sometimes ambiguous facts bearing upon the potential for serious consequences. See United States v. Martins, 413 F.3d 139, 147 (1st Cir.2005), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 644, 163 L.Ed.2d 520 (2005). The deputies in this case made precisely such a judgment. The resulting invasion of privacy is one that prudent, law-abiding citizens can accept as the fair and necessary price of having the police available as a safety net in emergencies.