Conn. trooper, If you want to "seize" a home, you need to "sweep" it? This means you "enter"? If that is what you mean, How do you "sweep" it if you are denied entry by the occupant?
I know little more than what my BOR tells me... If an LEO wanted to search, I would politely tell them to get a warrant and shut the door.
If that means I just created a "stand off"... so be it... Putting your head past my threshold and peeking is SEARCHING and I won't be part and party to an unwarranted search of my home...
Brent
True, if you are securing a scene you would ensure there no people inside to destroy evidence. The sweep is exactly like it sounds, not a search for evidence, just a search for people. Once that has been done, you apply for a warrant. If the evidence that you are searching for can not be readily destroyed, like a gun or crossbow, I would secure the scene and prevent anyone from leaving with evidence and if a warrant is obtained, then I would search. If the evidence could be destroyed, like drugs, money, papers, etc. Then I would sweep, remove the people from the area to be searched, and apply for the warrant.
The best example I can give of a protective sweep is this. I am dispatched to a house where a family member has found a dead body. They have gone to check on a relative and found them dead in the house. I arrive, it appears suspicious, so I check the house for other victims ( don't want to be standing outside and people bleeding to death inside), once the sweep has been made, apply for a search warrant. If it's a natural death that just looked suspicious, so what? Writing a warrant is not hard work and search by warrant is always the best way to go. If it's a legit homicide, you covered your bases and obtained a warrant, no tainted evidence, no evidence tossed out.
Another example. I am doing Commercial Vehicle Enforcement. I stop a truck from Laredo, Texas. A known source city for drug trafficers. I see numerous signs and indicators of narcotics smuggling. A narcotics detection K-9 arrives and sniffs the truck. The dog indicates to the presence of narcotics. I ask for consent to search and the driver says no. I would then secure the truck, prevent it from leaving and prevent the driver from destroying or tampering with anything, and apply for a search warrant based on my training and observations of the known naroctics indicators and the K-9 alert on the vehicle. If the warrant was issued, then I am going to search.
Funny, I already said that, but thanks for the bad cop bs that pops up in very thread.
Look a few posts up where I was the one saying there is legal recourse against cops when things go wrong, and that the chips fall where they may if they were in the wrong.