LAWYER RESPONDS: Can Police Stick Their Foot in Your Door?

Can you slam your door on the police officer's foot? What rights do you have if they won't let you shut the door. Let's see how this scenario could play out....

[williambrinkmeier]

There's an issue when you need a law degree to interact with the law enforcement officer yet they can act like clueless children cause of qualified immunity.

[neiljohnson]

Retired LEO here. NEVER open your door to a police officer without a warrant.

[AnAZPatriot]

Had a cop do this when I was 17. Didn't know any better, so opened the door. They were looking for someone I'd never heard of, I told him he had the wrong house, had lived there 10 years, I know who lives there. He wanted to come in and search. I asked for the warrant, he started threatening me. I started to close the door and told him he can leave now and go get that warrant. He stuck his foot in the door, I said you aren't welcome here, you're trespassing, and then I walked away to the kitchen and started making me a sandwich. When I finished making it, I started munching on it as I walked to the living room. He was standing in the doorway still yapping. I sat on the couch, turned on the TV and kept eating my sandwich ignoring him. I don't know when he left.

[sheepwshotguns]

It will never cease to amaze me that police can do anything they want to us while being paid officers of the law, but we have to be absolute angels to avoid prosecution.

[EamonnSeoigh]

I've mentioned this before. Look past the officers shoulder and yell, "Billy! Get away from that police car!" When the cop turns around to look, close the door.

[stephenwilliams]

When I was 5 years old. A cop came to the door to ask for my 2 timing old man. Mother said " not here" the foot came into the door. And repeated the question. Mother firmly placed her foot on his and asked for papers." I don't need" papers all the time looking around her takeing in the house. Mother steped thrugh the door way to the house proper and closed and locked the main door. The cop followed the 3 steps and busted down the second door. He was met with a gallon of scalding water. Mother pleaded selfe defense, no Warrent, and property damage. And won the case hands down. The judge fined the cop, and benched him for 30 days pending the 1950s version of anger manage ment. Thanks

[jlesko]

wouldn't sticking his foot in the doorway constitute illegally entering a dwelling?

[andyfletcher]

The very notion that we have to allow our rights to be violated and ''sort it out later'' has the Founders rolling in their graves. Once your rights have been violated they can't be unviolated. MAYBE you can get some form of compensation, after years in court, but you will still be forever violated. The ONLY time to assert your rights is in the moment. Otherwise, by definition, we have no rights.

[dianarockwell]

Too many innocent people have been railroaded into jail, list their jobs, their homes, their belongings. I don’t believe we practice innocent until proven guilty.

[FullDottle]

Best advice I ever recieved:
Treat law enforcement at your door like a vampire. I simply do not open my door to uninvited guests, police or otherwise.

[Soloong_Gaybowzer]

When I worked as an apprentice salesman, I was told NEVER to stick my foot in someone's door to keep it open because I could not only be shot by the homeowner, but charged with a home invasion as well.

Qualified Immunity enables criminal cops.

[frankwang]

I've personally had this exact situation happen to me. Went to visit my dad on a Saturday, we were going to go out to lunch. When I arrived he wasn't quite ready. He said there was a Western on TV the night before that he hadn't seen in a long time and he stayed up to watch it. So he slept in a bit. I told him no problem, take his time and we can leave for lunch when he was ready. While he was in the shower there was a knock at the door. When I opened the door there were three cops standing on the porch. They immediately asked by name for my father without explaining why they were there and as to why they wanted to speak to him. I asked them what this was pertaining to and they said it was regarding a matter that didn't involve me. I said I'm aware of that, but if they were asking to speak to my father, my dad was going to want to know why they were there? Again they said I didn't need to know. I said if they were there selling tickets to a police fundraiser that my dad would surely not be interested and that I wasn't going to bother him. They finally said it was pertaining to a matter regarding my dad and mom the night before (They were separated). When I went to close the door as to relay their request to speak to my father. One of the cops stuck his foot in the door, preventing me from closing it. That didn't sit well with me. I turned around as to face the cop and told him that I was going to close the door, that if he didn't want to lose his foot. I strongly suggested he remove it. In which he did. I closed the door and walked down the hallway to my father's bedroom. He had just gotten out of the shower and I told him the police were at the door asking to speak to him. He said he had gone out to dinner the night before with my mom and they got into an argument and she threatened she was going to call the police. My dad said he thought she was just blowing steam in the heat of the moment but apparently she did. My dad said no problem, just tell the police that he just got out of the shower and as soon as he was dressed he would be out to speak with them. As I stepped out of my dad's bedroom, back into the hallway. There I found myself staring down the barrels of three guns. All three cops had entered the house, weapons drawn and told me I was under arrest. I asked what for? They said threatening a police officer. They stretched me suggesting he remove his foot or lose it as a "Threat". They called a patty wagon and took me down to whatever precinct they were out of, booked me and released me with a court date. Was total B.S. and a waste of time. When the court date came, had to take the day off work, lost wages. Drove to the city, had to pay for parking. Then sat in court for hours until my case was called. The judge picked up the case fold, opened it, skim read it for a few seconds and closed the folder. Then picked up his gavel and slammed it down stating case dismissed. The judge never asked me a question. He knew it was a wrongful arrest and dismissed it. So word to the wise, when the police are by your house. Lock the doors and don't open them.

[SmallSpoonBrigade]

It's really messed up how placing a foot inside the door isn't automatically trespassing. If anybody else did that, you'd be justified in doing what you could to close the door after telling them that they can't come in.

[jesarablack]

2:00 is a little terrifying, that the courts literally said, to paraphrase here "What you did was legal, but you shouldn't have invoked your rights"

[fukgoogle]

Recently police came to my door at 10:00 at night when I was watching the news before going to bed. I was wearing headphones so as to not disturb anyone. The police came and banged on the doors which I did not hear. They then called reinforcements and was preparing an assault entry into my home when I managed to hear them. When I looked out the window of my front door there were four to five police officers with shields and guns drawn. I asked them what is going on and no one could give me an intelligible answer. They repeatedly demanded entrance into my home or they were going to force their way in. I repeatedly asked what they were doing here - "I did not call you." They gave several different contradictory responses as to why they were there... The best I could discern is that it was a wellness check of some sorts and the logic played out as: police pounding on the door and I respond who's there and they say it is the police and I say what do you want and they say let us in and I say why and they say for your safety and I say what do I need saving from and they respond from what we're going to do to you if you do not let us in.
I was outraged and called the police station and demanded to speak to the shift captain and ordered the police off my property and asked who called them and what they did to verify the legitimacy of the call. They were completely clueless as to why they were there and creating such a dangerous situation for everybody when one did not exist until they created it.

[iamacog]

I've had the police show up at my door at 3 am in the morning looking for the owner of a specific car. I was able to direct them to the proper house. What they didn't know is that I answered the door armed and then hid my firearm while talking with them. People pose as the police and there are bad cops out there. Being prepared is key.

[sassoscrib]

This is why I have a metal screen door. It allows me to speak, without giving anybody an opportunity to intrude.

[randomstuff-qush]

What I found scary was a situation in Spokane where the police were acting on a warrant, but they got the wrong address. They broke down the door, caused significant property damage while searching the place (slamming furniture into walls hard enough to put holes in walls and damage the furniture, for example), and struck & verbally abused unresisting residents. Then they found out that they raided the wrong house, literally a warrantless home invasion since the warrant in their possession was for a different address, they refused to compensate for any of the damages...heck, it took public shaming via the news to even get an apology out of them. Not sure if there ever was any justice for the homeowner. Its just a scary thought that you can do absolutely nothing wrong and still get screwed over hard by the police...and if you can't afford a good lawyer, you don't even have any recourse other than call up the news stations and hope public outrage forces them to do the right thing.

[douglasjones]

This happened to me.
My sister made a false police report that I was beating up our mother so that I could get arrested and she could get all of the inheritance.
Cop banged on the door and I made the mistake of opening it.
I told him, I didn’t call you (which I hadn’t).
He shoved his foot in the door and we had a minor verbal tussle.
Luckily my mother came out of the bedroom and told the cop I was her caregiver and that no, I wasn’t beating her, I was her lifesaver.
The cop, sneering, left.

[ShadesOfKnight]

I love how the court decision is basically, “yeah we were wrong in trying but you should have just gone along with it anyway. “