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DE finally adopts community caretaking exception

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Delaware finally adopts community caretaking exception, in an interesting opinion with an overview of the entire exception. Williams v. State, 2008 Del. LEXIS 549 (December 2, 2008): In order to balance this caretaking function with the fundamental protections guaranteed by the Delaware and United States Constitutions, we must ascertain that the encounter was part of the police officer's community caretaker function; that the officer's actions during it remained within the caretaking function; and that once the caretaking function had ceased, either the encounter was terminated, or some other justification existed for its continuance. We find that the test promulgated by the Montana Supreme Court in State v. Lovegren, properly balances these concerns...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 10, 2008 (boomark / email).