When Can Police Force Entry on a Suicidal Subject Call?

Anthony Bandiero
Attorney and Senior Legal Instructor, Blue to Gold Law Enforcement Training

This one is another roadside chat, recorded on the road between classes. The question came in from an officer asking whether a third party call about a text message is enough to force entry on a possible suicidal subject.

When can you force entry, and when should you?

Today’s question is a difficult one, and basically what it breaks down to is this: when can police force entry into a residence in response to a suicidal subject call for service?

This is a tough question, and these are tough calls, because police officers do what they do, they started their career for one purpose, and that is for the purpose of saving lives. And so the idea of not doing that, the idea of walking away, it’s anathema to a lot of police officers. The idea that I should just walk away and just let whatever’s gonna happen happen, instead of doing what I can to get in there and resolve the situation. It’s a struggle. But sometimes walking away is the best course of action.

So we’re going to talk about that a little bit. But the question here is when can we. Now I can help you with that question. When can we force entry legally, I can help you with that question. I’m going to make references in case law. But the bigger question is not only when can you, but when should you. And that’s a question that I’m not going to be able to help you answer. That’s a question you’re going to have to answer for yourself. It’s a question your supervisor is going to have to answer. It’s a question that your department is going to have to answer.

So let’s get into it. Legally, when can you.

Now one thing that I want to say. These cases that we’re going to talk about today, they involve just one person being at risk of harm, a suicidal subject. There is not an innocent third party at risk here. There is not an innocent third party involved. So remember your priorities of life. If you’re dealing with a situation where there’s a hostage or there’s an innocent third party at risk, you are in a different area than what we’re going to be talking about today. Keep it in mind. Priorities of life.

The fact pattern the officer sent in

Officers receive a third party call that a friend sent the caller a text message saying he might kill himself sometime in the next two days. Officers arrive on scene and get no answer at the apartment door. All the lights are on and a TV is playing in a distant bedroom. Dispatch cannot make contact with the subject via telephone. No one else lives in the apartment, and the caller stated he wasn’t sure if the subject was actually home or not. The caller was not anonymous, but they were not going to respond to the scene to actually show officers the text messages.

Have enough facts been established to meet the threshold of exigency to force entry into the apartment for a well-being check on a possible suicidal subject?

So let’s walk through this.

Does community caretaking let you into a house?

First off, consent. We don’t have a situation where anybody involved can give us consent to go into that apartment. So consent’s out the window.

Then let’s go to recognized exceptions. What are our recognized exceptions here? Well, in 2021 Caniglia v. Strom confirmed, Supreme Court said, that community caretaking does not apply to residences.

And in that case there was a domestic situation. The next day the wife called in and said hey, will you go back to the house with me, I’m concerned my husband might be suicidal. They go back, they make contact with the subject, they talk to him, he agrees to go get mental health treatment on the condition that officers do not take his firearms. You know where this is going. Officers go in, wife shows them where the firearms are, they take the firearms for the purpose of community caretaking. And that’s important: community caretaking. They use a community caretaking justification to take those firearms. The Supreme Court said in this instance community caretaking does not apply to a household. It doesn’t apply to a residence.

So if we’re going to be forcing entry into a home, we need to use another recognized exception, which is going to be our exigency, our emergency aid, access to that home. Those recognized exceptions.

What does the emergency aid exception require?

In order for an exigency, emergency aid exception to apply, you must have a reasonable objective belief that someone in the house is in immediate need of your assistance. Is someone injured in the home? Are they in danger? You have that objectively reasonable reason to believe that they’re in immediate need of medical assistance, or they’re threatened with imminent bodily injury. If you have that, then you are legally justified in forcing entry into that home under the emergency aid exigency exception to the warrant requirement.

There’s a 2009 Supreme Court case, Michigan v. Fisher, that supports this. In that case a neighbor called in and said hey, my neighbor’s going crazy, he’s destroying things outside. Officers get there. The front of the house is destroyed. The vehicle in the driveway is destroyed. There’s blood on the hood of the car. They go up, they look in the window, and they see the subject in there. They see Fisher freaking out, right, he’s destroying things. They call out to him. He says F you, go get a warrant. They force entry into the house, at which point he comes up with a rifle, points the rifle at them, and that is the basis for the aggravated assault that they ultimately arrest him for.

And his position is, no, the evidence that you obtained, the officer’s testimony that when he came in the guy came up and pointed a gun at him, you found that after an illegal entry into my home. The Fourth Amendment protects my house, and there wasn’t a justification for you to force entry in here. It’s just me in here going crazy, hurting myself. And the Supreme Court said no, that is exigency, that is the emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement. The officers were justified in going into the house.

There’s also a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court case, that’s Brigham City v. Stuart. In that case officers got a call again from a neighbor about a disturbance at a house. Officers go out, they see what appears to be underage juveniles drinking in the backyard, they go into the backyard. While they’re there they look through the window and they see four people actively fighting each other, one of whom gets punched in the face and then spits blood in the sink. Court said they were justified, based on that information, in going into the house.

So, emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement.

Is attempted suicide a crime in your state?

Just keep in mind, guys, when we’re dealing with suicidal subjects, we don’t want to make the situation worse. We’re there to save that person from themselves. But in the vast majority of states suicide is not a crime. In some states attempted suicide is. Alabama, I think Virginia. But just be aware. I mean, is that going to be a justification where we’re saying hey, we want to arrest this person for attempted suicide? You do you. But you have to live in the world, and you have to go and deal with this, and you have to say yeah, that was objectively reasonable. So keep that in mind.

What happens when these calls go wrong?

I’m going to put some links in the description below.

One is the Hillsborough County, Florida deputy, where a neighbor calls in and says hey, I’m worried about my neighbor. Officers go out, they make entry, and they ultimately end up getting in a shootout with the subject.

Also a deputy in Ohio, and there’s one where he dodged a bullet. Brother calls in and says hey, I’m worried about my brother, I think he’s suicidal. Officers go out, they knock on the door, door comes open, gun comes out, and shooting results. Deputy shoots the subject. So take a look at those videos, just as a point of reference. Be aware of it.

Tenth Circuit, Hastings v. Barnes. Officers were denied qualified immunity after they responded to check on a subject who was suicidal, reportedly. He was going to asphyxiate himself in the garage by sucking on the garden hose, and they pepper spray him. He retreats back into the house. They follow him back into the house, into his back bedroom. He comes up with a samurai sword and they shoot him. And so those officers were denied qualified immunity. Not a situation you ever want to find yourself in.

Hayes v. County of San Diego, that’s Ninth Circuit. Officers were called in response to a domestic violence situation. They figure out there’s no physical altercation. And then they go in, they make contact with the subject, he comes up with a knife, and they shoot him at a distance of about six to eight feet.

Recently we had the Huntsville, Alabama case, Officer William Ben Darby, where he responded to a suicidal subject and he believed that his partner was putting herself at risk of harm, based on her positioning, based on her lack of cover, based on her lack of concealment, when dealing with the subject who was armed with a handgun. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

In 2017 an Oklahoma police officer responded to a subject who had a lighter and a can of lighter fluid, and the officer shot that subject stating that he believed the subject had a knife. But he ended up getting 10 years.

So the seriousness of these calls for service cannot be downplayed.

Is there a duty to force entry and save someone from themselves?

So you guys have to make the decision for yourself. Is there that exigency justifying, necessitating, me to force entry into this home to save this person from themselves?

There is no duty to act to save that person from themselves absent some kind of a special relationship. So if you guys make contact with family members and you’re like hey, don’t worry about it, you don’t need to go over there, we’re gonna go handle it, and then you don’t, you might have some liability there. But other than that, outside that special relationship, there is no duty to act.

So if you go to save someone from themselves and you end up being put in a situation where you use force on them, it’s going to be a bad day for everybody. And that’s not why we do what we do. I know that’s not why you guys go to work every day. It’s to save lives, not take them. So be cognizant of that.

So on these facts, can you force entry?

In this instance I’m going to come out definitively and say, based on the facts here, you do not have sufficient exigency to force entry in this situation.

Officers have a third party call from a friend. Text message, I might kill myself sometime in the next two days. No answer. TV is on, lights are on. No contact with subject via telephone. Caller is refusing to respond to the scene to actually show officers the text messages. Can’t say that the actual subject is actually inside the home.

No. You don’t have exigency. You don’t have the emergency exception to the warrant requirement. Do not force entry in this case.

When would a suicidal subject call give you exigency?

Different situation, maybe.

A lot of times what we have is we have an ex-boyfriend calling in and saying hey, I was just FaceTiming with my girlfriend and she said she’s suicidal and was cutting her arm. Well, that might be a different situation. You might have that objectively reasonable basis to say I need to get in there immediately to save this person’s life.

But again, there’s going to be questions. How serious were the cuts? Has she done this before? How serious do you believe she is? Can we get in contact with her any other way? Can we get in contact with any of their family members in the house?

What justifies forcing entry on a welfare check when nobody has seen the neighbor?

Something else that we deal with a lot, especially during COVID, was neighbors calling in and saying hey, I haven’t seen my neighbor in a couple days, I’m concerned. You go out, you knock on the door. What is going to be your basis for forcing entry into that home?

It’s gonna have to be more than just I haven’t seen my neighbor in a couple days.

Flies on the window. Smell of death coming from inside the house. Maybe you hear screams from inside the house, people calling help me. You call all the phone numbers that you have for the person. Is the person’s vehicle in the driveway? Is it in the garage? Are there newspapers piled up in the driveway? Are there packages piled up by the front door? Contact the neighbors: oh yeah, I see that person every day and I haven’t seen them in three days. Right, that’s strange. That’ll give you a basis to say objectively there is a need for you to force entry into that home to make sure that person is okay.

The short version

• Remember your priorities of life. If you’re dealing with a situation where there’s a hostage or there’s an innocent third party at risk, you are in a different area than what we’re going to be talking about today.
• We don’t have a situation where anybody involved can give us consent to go into that apartment. So consent’s out the window.
• In 2021 Caniglia v. Strom confirmed, Supreme Court said, that community caretaking does not apply to residences.
• You must have a reasonable objective belief that someone in the house is in immediate need of your assistance.
• There is no duty to act to save that person from themselves absent some kind of a special relationship.
• Based on the facts here, you do not have sufficient exigency to force entry in this situation. Do not force entry in this case.
• Different situation, maybe. You might have that objectively reasonable basis to say I need to get in there immediately to save this person’s life.
• The bigger question is not only when can you, but when should you. That’s a question you’re going to have to answer for yourself.
• The seriousness of these calls for service cannot be downplayed.

I hope this helps, guys. If you have any other questions, if you have questions for us, please go to bluetogold.com/show, check that out, fill out that form, submit your questions to us. We’ll get them answered, we’ll apply case law, and we’ll do what we can to help you get it right every time.

Until next time, be safe out there, watch each other’s backs, and we’ll see you soon.

This is an edited transcript of Blue to Gold Ep. #352, available on video here.

This is legal education, not legal advice. State law on welfare checks, mental health holds, and attempted suicide varies. Check your statutes, your case law, and your agency policy.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988.

Related from Blue to Gold

• Case v. Montana: The U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies the Legal Standard for Warrantless Home Entry to Render Emergency Aid
• When Do Police Create a Special Relationship Duty?
• Community Caretaking and Red Flag Laws

This article is legal training, not legal advice. Check your state law and your agency policy, because both can be more restrictive than the Fourth Amendment.