JUST SAY NO!

A recent Missouri case reported in Fourth Amendment.com State v. Allen illustrates the need not to let police into your house or your car or anywhere else that you have an expectation of privacy. The police conducted a “knock and talk” at the residence of Amy Jo Dean Rig. A “knock and talk” occurs when the police believe that criminal activity, in this case drug use and sales, is occurring in a residence. They do not have probable cause to search the residence or to get a search warrant. If they had probable cause they would go ahead and get the search warrant. But since they don’t have probable cause they knock on the door and attempt to either get information from the resident that gives them probable cause or even better yet get the resident to let them into the house to search for contraband.

In this case Rig initially said “no.” But police are taught to be persuasive talk. Many department have officers who specialize in talking their way into a residence. In this case they used a female officer. Presumably they thought that the female was more likely to get into the apartment.

The officers asked Rig if there were drugs in the apartment. She said “no.” In a not unusual move the officers told Rig to let them in to show that she was telling the truth. She continues to say, “no.” The officers start talking about Rig’s children and how bad it is to have drugs around them. Eventually they get her to admit that she has a marijuana pipe. The officers ask if they can come in and get it. They will only write her a ticket if they get the pipe. She says she’ll get it and give it to them. They say “for officer safety purposes” they want to come in and get it. At this point Rig gives up and says, “yes.” They come in. One of the officers stays in the living room with Rig’s guests. the other follows her to the bedroom. She goes to the bedside table and quickly takes the pipe out of a drawer and gives it to them.

Now that they have evidence they wonder what else is in the drawer. Thi\ey get permission to search the drawer. They find a white powder used for cutting drugs. Well now that they have probable cause, they give Rig the choice of either giving further consent or they will get a search warrant. The cat is out of the bag and its too late. They get the consent and search the house. They find a commercial quantity of methamphetamine. Her boyfriend is arrested and convicted.

If Rig had said “no” at the door and stuck to her guns or if she said I want to talk to a lawyer before I let you in my house, the search would not have happened and no one would have been arrested.