police at the door... do i have to answer?

nnh

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 27, 2001
Messages
185
If a policeman comes to my front door and knocks or rings the bell, do i have to open the door to answer him? can I just pretend im not at home? could not answering the door be a source of probable cause?
 
You can pretend like you're not there and not answer, of course, but they might bust down the door if they have a warrant.
 
If the cops have a warrant, they are coming in reguardless.
If they don't, that's a different story. I'm not sure what states or counties have what laws, but it is probably a minor infraction not to answer the door to a uniformed officer. I seriously doubt it's anything you'd do time for or anything. Not to mention, if you don't open the door, they aren't coming in, so it's not like anyone can really prove you were there or heard the door anyways.
And if you're doing something or in possession of something illegal, you might as well just not answer the door. I'd rather take my chances having to buy a new front door if I had a chance that they were responding to a complaint call or something in which they are NOT coming in.
Opening the door just makes it that much easier for them to search your house. Infact once you answer the door, they can make up probable cause saying you "looked suspicious" or the classic "I smelled marijuana".
Stay inside. Be quiet. Hide under the covers like a little pussy. And hope they go away in the next few minutes because you were right about to go to the bathroom when you heard the knock on the door and you're going to pee yourself soon.
 
I think you are required to say sumthing to a cop at your door...but i dunno. I think a safe bet would be to talk to tha cop without opening the door or like with the chain...They can not enter your house without a proper warrent...If they say they have the right to enter due to suspicious activity, i found out <the hard way> that approach is not legitimite because they write down an IR (incident report) before they leave the car or horse or whatever the fuck they are on...Now obviously different states have different laws so be shure to read up and find out before dealing with the cop that mite come over...
~ollie
 
Assuming that u are not doing anything illegal, or have contraband lying in "plain view" about the place I'd say u are Ok. If he/she is attempting to serve a divore complaint or other type of process and you intentionally avoid him/her; you are guilty of "evading process."
You could call the police station and tell the dispatch that an officer was at your home and ask the dispatcher if he/she knows (they do).
 
I've answered the door when I knew I wasn't in trouble for sure. Otherwise get ready to flush when the door comes down. A security door that opens out is hard to kick down, and blacked out windows is a plus.
 
Then what happens if you're in your dorm room say and smoking weed, and the RA calls the cops on you; they come in your room regaurdless as far as I know. Is that just because it's technically NOT your property? I mean you dont own your dorm room, essentially you rent it.
Just wondering, my roomate was arrested and kicked out of my college earlier this year for smoking weed in the room...well the RA smelt it, called the cops and the cops searched the room and found his stuff, but they came in the room after knocking and my roomate pretended not to be there.
 
^^
There are a number of institutions of higher learning that insist that if you wish to attend school on their cumpuses, you must check some of your constititional rights at the gate entrance. Since you did not state your friends particular college or their policy on dorm room searches, in the event an RA smells what he/she belives to be marijuana, and consequently having said room searched; it is impossible to completely answer your question.
However, the police would not need a search warrant in the event that a crime is being committed in their presence.
 
On a college campus, in the dorms, nothing is your private property. The room belongs to the university, and as such, they can search anything and anywhere they want to. An RA here(in Oregon) told me that if you own something with a lock on it, it IS your private property, and the RA can't search inside that, and can't make you open it. Unfortunately they can call the cops, but they will have to have a warrant to make you open the thing with a lock (box, refrigerator, whatever) and hopefully in the meantime you can find a way to get rid of whatever you don't want them to find.
 
Ok a funny incident from the past. Me and some friends had just picked up rather large quantity of coke and e, and were seperating everything in the living room. Here a knock at the door, look and it's the fucking cops. Well we decide to answer, but have everything in bathroom with one friend ready to flush if it sounds like cops are coming in. We're not worried about the cops hering the sudden flushing because of my other roomates stereo on upstairs, which we could barely hear over. Boy the smiles on our faces when the bastards just asked us to turn down the music upstairs, where my roomate had put a speaker out the window, should have been reason enough for a search.......
Man am I glad we didn't just flush. And the sad thing is we hadn't even told the guy upstairs we were home yet. Sometimes I wonder at our intelligence......
 
I've heard that for women, they aren't supposed to answer the door until they phone the police station to see if the guy (if it's a guy) is legit. There have been cases where some perv will dress up like a cop and when a woman opens the door, they barge in and rape her or worse. If you're a woman, I wouldn't open the door but yell out that you're going to call the station to confirm. This should also buy you time to dispose of anything you wouldn't want them to find.
Peace
 
Ezee: I would have to say that's pretty damn smooth
-ikarus
 
You don't have to answer your door. They do not know you are in there. What if a Cop knocked on the door and you were sleeping??
 
hehehe, i was watching cops the other day, and when they have a warrant, when they are knocking, they tell you they have a warrant(i don't know if this always happens), so if they just knock, then whatever, but if they are like we have a warrant to search the premises, then get ready to hide/flush whatever you have cause they will LITERALLY tear the house down to find what they want.
 
I was at my friends house and his brother had a warrant for his arrest, they just knocked on the door and asked if he was home. My friend replied No sir and they left.
 
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