Opinion ID: 2064787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the dorman guidelines

Text: When the officers' intent is to make an arrest but there is no consent to enter, the question is whether the entry is lawful absent an arrest warrant. The United States Supreme Court has apparently not considered this question. [1] The Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, sitting en banc, held in Dorman v. United States, 140 U.S.App.D.C. 313, 435 F.2d 385 (1970), that an unconsented entry into a home by law officers for the purpose of making an arrest or search is per se unreasonable. See also Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). This conclusion flows from the premise that a great burden to show exigent circumstances is placed on officers who enter a home or dwelling without consent. Freedom from intrusion into the home or dwelling is the archetype of the privacy protection secured by the Fourth Amendment. People v. Ramey, 16 Cal.3d 263, 273, 127 Cal.Rptr. 629, 635, 545 P.2d 1333, 1339 (1976). The term exigent circumstances has been defined as an emergency situation requiring swift action to prevent imminent danger to life or serious damage to property, or to forestall the imminent escape of a suspect or destruction of evidence. People v. Ramey, supra, 127 Cal.Rptr. at 637, 545 P.2d at 1341. In the context of a search situation, our court has said that the term exigent circumstances is not a separate exception to the requirement of a warrant, but is only a handy way of describing circumstances which give rise to one of the generally recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. [2] State v. Matthews, 216 N.W.2d 90, 100 (N.D.1974). The existence of exigent circumstances justifying a warrantless entry for arrest necessarily differ somewhat from those applicable to a search. United States v. Shye, 492 F.2d 886, 891 (6th Cir. 1974). The court of appeals in Dorman, supra, has enunciated six guidelines to aid law enforcement in ascertaining when exigent circumstances exist in a warrantless entry for an arrest. [3] The guidelines are: (1) A grievous offense is involved, particularly one that is a crime of violence; (2) The suspect is reasonably believed to be armed; (3) There exists a clear showing of probable cause; (4) There is a strong reason to believe that the suspect is in the premises being entered; (5) There is a likelihood that the suspect will escape if not swiftly apprehended; and (6) The unconsented entry is peaceably made. The Dorman court, without labeling it as a guideline, added the additional factor of whether it was a daytime or nighttime entry. The time of entry, while significant, is a double-edged consideration. On the one hand, inability to obtain a warrant at night may lessen the warrant requirement. On the other hand, a late night entry may require a higher standard of reasonableness. The effectiveness of the above criteria for determining when a warrantless entry into a home is valid has recently been criticized by Wayne R. LaFave in his excellent dissertation entitled, Search and SeizureA Treatise on the Fourth Amendment, Vol. 2 at 386 (1978), et seq. The thrust of LaFave's criticism is that the purpose of all Fourth Amendment standards is to keep police conduct within constitutional limits. This purpose is not served by a rule which cannot be applied correctly with a fair degree of consistency by well-intentioned police officers. LaFave, supra, at 390. It is thus appropriate to ask whether Dorman is too sophisticated to be applied, requiring as it does the making of on-the-spot decisions by a complicated weighing and balancing of a multitude of imprecise factors. LaFave, supra, at 390. Although our court will utilize the approach of the Dorman court, we do so with the caveat that its guidelines are not to be interpreted as cardinal maxims, rigidly applied to every case. Rather, we seek to utilize the Dorman considerations as flexible guidelines to determine under what circumstances officers may lawfully enter an individual's home without a warrant. We do not consider the guidelines to be conditions precedent to a lawful entry. See State v. Jones, 274 N.W.2d 273, 276 (Iowa 1979). All other circumstances bearing upon the exigencies of the situation must be considered in deciding whether an entry of the suspects' home was lawful. The existence of exigent circumstances must be determined in light of the facts known to the officers at the time they seek entry. People v. Ramey, supra, 127 Cal.Rptr. at 637, 545 P.2d at 1341. The fundamental considerations in determining whether an entry for arrest is reasonable to satisfy the Fourth Amendment will remain: (1) is there probable cause to arrest, and (2) will the time and circumstances effectively prohibit the officers from obtaining a warrant. Here, the officers had probable cause to enter the Page apartment. The circumstances surrounding the entry did not, in fairness, require delay. Swift action to prevent possible escape by the suspects and to preserve the fruits of the robbery may be essential to effective law enforcement. When the officers had obviously located the suspects' car and apartment, it would have been foolhardy not to make further inquiry of the apartment occupants. Because a Pontiac, identified as the one seen in the Sawyer area, was parked outside, it was reasonable to assume that the Page brothers might be in the apartment. In addition, it was not unreasonable to assume that the apartment occupants had seen the officers examining tire and boot tracks and would have escaped or destroyed any incriminating evidence while the officers were procuring a warrant. Although it may have been wise when viewed with hindsight, we do not fault the officers for failing to post a stake out while a warrant was being obtained. The actual entry in this case was peaceably made at a reasonable daylight hour, and the officers knocked and asked permission to enter. For these reasons we conclude that sufficient exigent circumstances existed for the officers to enter and arrest without a warrant.