Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

LA4: A stop on the street is [generally] compulsion, but a knock and talk is by consent

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Officer confronting citizen on the street expects citizen to be detained, but a knock and talk can be refused. State v. Jarrell, 2008 La. App. LEXIS 1183 (4th Cir. September 12, 2008): There is a clear distinction between the police detaining a suspect on the street as authorized by Article 215.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the police knocking on a suspect's door. When stopped on the street, a suspect has no choice but to submit to the authority of the police. When the door is opened in response to a knock, it is the consent of the occupant to confront the caller. There is no compulsion, force or coercion involved in the latter situation. State v. Sanders, 374 So.2d 1186, 1188 (La. 1979). HN4A search conducted pursuant to consent is an exception to the requirements of both warrant and probable cause...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on September 19, 2008 (boomark / email).