Marijuana.com

brosef

Aight here's the scoop. I was at class, my roomie was at home in our apartment.

Cops show up. Roomie opens the door slightly. They say they smell marijuana. Ask if they can come in. My roomate tells them no. They say, alright, we will be back with a search warrant.

So, my question is this: I am leaving tomorrow morning. Won't be back til this coming Monday because I have to drive 9 hours to go to a wedding. My roomie's dad is in the hospital so he won't be around as he's going back home for the weekend.

What happens if the cops return with a warrant while both of us aren't here? I was doing some research and the police are obligated by law to first knock on the door, then notify themselves at the door, and must give the occupants and reasonable amount of time to open the door. So, if we are both gone, that means officer boy is going to knock, wait a reasonable amount of time, and then kick the damn door down (they have that right once they've waited long enough)

So what do I do if they come to search when we are both gone? Should I just leave my door unlocked so they at least don't break it in? I'll be pissed if they fuck up my door and then I get to pay for it.

(By the way) - We had nothing in our apartment

 

GujKush

wouldn't post this up if i were you lotta cops do read this shit. warrant for smellin of weed? don't worry about it you'll be okay, they gotta see a judge and it takes time if its not a criminal case.

brosef

umm, people are posting about getting weed across borders. there are far more explicit items in this forum.

FakeBoobsRule

I think you have been watching too much TV and movies. There is a thing called a "no-knock warrant" where they don't have to knock or identify themselves. I'm sure one of the cops on here will try to split hairs but this type of warrant is only issued against suspects with a history of violence or if the judge believes that the act of the police identifying themselves will be met by violence or if the are a lot of weapons or firearms involved. Many search and seizure warrants have a few days before they expire. I forgot what most law enforcement are able to do if no one is home on the first try (plus it matters from state to state) but I doubt they will break down the door. First of all you live in an apartment so they would probably get management to let them in. Second, I know in my city the cops have capable locksmiths on hand or cops trained in locksmithing. If they know no one is home or they will not get shot while working on the lock, they will pick it.

This does remind me of a funny story when one of my ex girlfriends was wasted and called 911 because the taxi cab hadn't come yet. Well we didn't answer the door when them came to check on the hang up call and her house was handled by the sheriff's department while my house was handled by the city police. What the sheriff's department did was completely different then what the city police would have done with a 911 hang up call. God bless you L. God you are so hot!

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phuzz01

If nobody answers the door, the police can take any reasonable action to complete service of the search warrant. That can include breaking the door, picking the lock, or whatever other method. Nonetheless, I wouldn't just leave the door unlocked.

To be honest, I doubt they are coming. For one thing, I know that I for one would not spend the time doing a search warrant and bothering a judge for a minor mj case. For another, if I WERE going to get the warrant, I wouldn't just leave the apartment unsecured. To prevent destruction of evidence, all occupants would be taken out, and the apartment would be secured until the warrant was complete.

But that is just me. I don't know all the circumstances behind this case.

 

troublemaker_42

What Phuzz said is MUCH more correct than this statement. Once they have a warrant, they can and will do whatever it takes to serve that warrant. Nonviolent offenders CAN have their doors kicked in, too. Why take the time to pick a lock? Just because someone doesn't answer the door doesn't mean someone is not home. I sleep during the day....I'm sure a good many knocks upon my door go unanswered. Not to mention, I live in a mobile home. if I'm in the back bedroom where I sleep, I WON'T hear a knock on my front door, no matter how hard they knock. Combine the noise of a furance, a fan, and maybe the TV, and I won't hear a knock on a door close to 80 ft away. With the bedroom door shut, or the washing machine and dryer running, i won't even hear a knock on the back door near my bedroom. The fact of the matter is, once the warrant is in hand, police have a lot of leeway into what they can do in order to serve that warrant. Not being home or being a nonviolent offender doesn't mean they are going to wait, pick your lock, contact the manager etc before kicking in the door and executing the warrant. it doesn't just happen on TV....it happens in real life, too. Not many criminals welcome the police into their homes, and if it was as easy as ignoring them to make them go away, a LOT fewer warrants would be served, don't ya think?

But, as Phuzz said, the chances of them getting a warrant and searching the apt

FakeBoobsRule

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I never said that nonviolent offenders don't get their doors kicked in. I brought up the thing about the no-knock warrant and some examples of when one might be issued because the OP said this:

Like I said I didn't say nonviolent offenders don't get doors kicked in nor was I trying to imply that they need a no-knock warrant to kick in a door. All I was trying to do was address the research the OP did about how the cops are obligated to knock and identify themselves.

I never said anything about being home and not answering the door. I am fully aware that the cops will do whatever they need to to serve the warrant. I know they are not going to just come up to the door and ring the doorbell then if no one answers just shrug their shoulders and go away. They are going to do whatever they can in their power and sometimes even beyond what they should. Based on my experiences I know that if no one answers the door they like to look into windows, go to the backyard and try backdoors, put their ear to the window, check the hood of a vehicle to see if it is warm, call the home number on their cells, knock loud as hell, knock with their shoes to the point that they leave dents in the front door, yell at the house "We know you are in there," etc. I even admitted I don't know what they will do if no one is home on the first try but I offered some possiblities pertaining to the OP's situation. Every situation is different and it seems that each law enforcement agency has probably established a protocol or set of guidelines for what their officers are supposed to do when they serve a warrant. Since I have lived in many cities, it seems like these protocols vary from city to city in addition to varying between the actual agency (sheriff, police, FBI, DEA, etc) because I have seen how in similar situations one agency handled it differently then another agency. I might be wrong maybe there is a nationwide policy but it does seem like there are differences in how search warrants are executed in different cities and that would make sense. If you live in a politically conservative area it might differ from one that is more liberal or other factors. I know one of the tactics that the police like to use where I live now is that if there is a suspect who has a car that is not parked in a garage or structure, they will wait until the suspect is headed to the car and serve the warrant then. I have seen it down it other cities but not the frequency they do where I live now. Why take time to pick the lock? I know if the cops in my town were to start kicking in a lot of doors to serve search warrants looking for people guilty of simple possesion and not find anything then that would not go over well with the citizens of the city. In some cities I have lived in this would be probably be acceptable though.

The comment about the tv and movies was kind of tongue in cheek, kind of trying to reassure this guy because he sounds so worried that he is willing to leave his door open. I know that just not answering the door is going to stop them and that wasn't really the case with this guy. He wasn't going to be home. I still stand be my belief that they will not kick in the door just for the smell of pot. I didn't say this the first time I posted because someone else mentioned that they will probably not go to a judge for a warrant for this situation but I agree. I also got the impression that several hours had passed since the incident and it seems that they would have already been back by now. Since they probably won't get a warrant they will not be breaking down the door. I still believe that if they do get a warrant that they would probably get management to let them in or pick the lock. I know it is in the realm of possibility for them to kick down the door but I just think that for the smell of marijuana that this guy is safe unless he is not telling us the whole story.

Please don't take this long response as me being angry at you TM because I enjoy your posting in here and the lounge. I just wanted to clear up what I was trying to say. I'm sure what I say is not perfect because I am not a lawyer but I do have a lot of experiences that I have learned from and I am just trying to pass that on to provide some "starting point" to go from. Each situation is different and what happened in one may not exactly pertain to another situation, sometimes it might.

troublemaker_42

You're absolutely right there. They won't kick the door down for the smell of pot. Had they actually got the warrant, however, they certainly may have. A search warrant is different than an arrest warrant. Many of the scenarios you have mentioned seem to describe events that would take place if the police were seeking to simply arrest an individual. A search warrant, obviously, is quite different. They aren't looking for the person, they are looking for evidence to convict that person. The person doesn't need to be present or aware that a search is being done on or of his property, as long as the warrant is valid. Time is money, and police officers aren't going to waste the manpower to stake out a residence they already have a SEARCH warrant for, hoping the occupant will come home or come outside. If they have an ARREST warrent, it only makes sense that they will try to find the person in question.

I don't take any of what you say as you being mad at me. However, I usually have my ducks in a row before I post legal advice. I'm not a lawyer, but I do have a BA in crimnal justice. I'm not posting what I think I know. Personal experience is great and all, but it isn't as specific as being educated profrssionally in the field, either. My knowledge comes from both sides of the fence. I've had my fair share of dealing with the legal system as an offender, but I've also been educated for 4 years on the ins and outs of the criminal justice system as well, in a university atmosphere.

FakeBoobsRule

Damn it I misspoke again. What I meant was I don't think the smell of pot will lead to his door getting kicked down in the near future. I do know that about smell alone isn't grounds for a warrantless search of a house. We had this conversation before too and about hotel rooms. Sadly though, there are some cops that will ignore this and try to search a house without a warrant based on smell. I knew from other posts you were a criminal justice major too.

I know some law enforcement agencies will use the tactic of serving arrest warrants when someone goes to their car but here they also use that tactic to serve search warrants on high risk suspects because it catches them offguard and out in the open and sometimes preserves evidence. There is a higher than normal chance that cops will be met with violence if trying to serve search warrants or arrest warrants in my neck of the woods.

phuzz01

That isn't necessarily true. The same standard of evidence is required to get a search warrant, or to conduct a warrantless search. That standard is, of course, probable cause. So you do not need more evidence to conduct a warrantless search than you do to get a search warrant.

In addition to probable cause, however, you would need some sort of exigency to search a home without a warrant. You would need to be able to articulate that if you went to get a search warrant, evidence would be destroyed or public safety would be at risk.

Smell alone is enough for probable cause. So it would be sufficient evidence to get a search warrant OR to conduct a warrantless search. But again, if you are going to search without a warrant, you need to be able to explain why you simply couldn't secure the house and get a warrant. For example, if you could see or hear that there were people inside, but they weren't willing to come to the door, you could argue that getting a warrant would give the people inside time to flush the drugs.