{"id":223851,"date":"2026-09-14T07:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portal.bluetogold.com\/enter-backyard-burglar-alarm-curtilage\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T06:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:18:28","slug":"enter-backyard-burglar-alarm-curtilage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portal.bluetogold.com\/?p=223851","title":{"rendered":"When Can Police Enter a Backyard on a Burglar Alarm Call?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Bandiero<\/a><\/strong>
\nAttorney and Senior Legal Instructor, Blue to Gold Law Enforcement Training<\/p>\n

A short and sweet question from an officer in California, who wanted to know whether there is case law defining how and when officers can enter curtilage<\/a> on a report of an alarm with no further known circumstances.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hello my friends, it’s attorney Anthony Bandiero here, bringing you the roadside chat. This question comes from an officer from California, and it’s a pretty short and sweet question, so I’ll get down to the point. The officer is looking for some clarification about when they can enter backyards in response to a burglar alarm.<\/p>\n

So the officer says, is there any case law defining how and when officers can enter curtilage based on report of an alarm with no further known circumstances?<\/p>\n

All right, so let’s break this up a little bit.<\/p>\n

What is curtilage?<\/h2>\n

Let’s first start off with what is curtilage. Curtilage is that area around a home that for constitutional purposes is treated like the home itself. Well, that’s a mighty big compliment, because nothing is as protected as the home. So that area around the home is often protected like the home itself.<\/p>\n

What are the four curtilage factors?<\/h2>\n

There are four factors that determine whether or not an area is curtilage.<\/p>\n

They include proximity to the home. The closer you are to the home, the more likely you are standing on curtilage, not open fields.<\/p>\n

The next one is enclosure. Is that area that you’re standing on next to the home enclosed by some kind of fence or other structure? It just makes sense that when you put a fence up you basically send a signal that you want that area more protected than open fields.<\/p>\n

The next factor is the use of the area, and that’s a very important factor. Because why are we protecting a piece of property around the home like the home itself? Because the area is being used for domestic life. When the homeowner or occupant is standing on this area they think to themselves, man, this feels like I’m associated with my home. This is like my home life. Physically and psychologically this is associated with my home.<\/p>\n

And the final factor is sight screening. Has the person done something to keep prying eyes out?<\/p>\n

Do you need all four factors? The answer is no. But these are the four factors that courts use. The two most important factors by far are proximity and use. The closer you are to the home, and if the area is being used for family activities, it’s most likely going to be curtilage.<\/p>\n

Is there a case on entering a backyard for an alarm?<\/h2>\n

Now let’s go into our burglar alarm situation. There are two things that we see in case law when it comes to burglar alarms. One is entering the backyards, and two is entering the home itself. My officer is talking about the curtilage, which is usually the backyard.<\/p>\n

The case I have for you is Bilida v. McCleod. It’s a case out of the First Circuit. The citation is 211 F.3d 166, 2000.<\/p>\n

So what happened here was that an alarm went off at the residence, and the officers entered into the backyard to see signs of entry and so forth. While in the backyard, and it’s a funny case actually, while in the backyard the officers saw a pet raccoon. Well, you can’t have a pet raccoon I guess, unless you have a license or something. It’s a wild animal. So the cops called the Division of Environmental Management, who came out and seized the raccoon because they did not have a license associated with the raccoon. And the homeowner sued, saying whoa, whoa, you took my property.<\/p>\n

So there’s a few things in this case that are kind of interesting, but the first thing I want to talk to you about is, were the officers lawfully present in the backyard? So that would be like plain view<\/a>. And the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

What did the court say justified the entry?<\/h2>\n

So here is the quote from the case. Warrantless entries are most often justified by exigent circumstances. Warrantless entries into protected areas like the backyard, the best examples being hot pursuit<\/a> of a felon, imminent destruction or removal of evidence, the threatened escape by a suspect, or imminent threat to the life or safety of the public, police officers, or a person in the residence. Here the entry into the backyard in response to the silent security alarm is a perfectly good example of a perceived imminent threat, and Bilida herself does not claim that the officer’s entry was unjustified.<\/p>\n

So that’s a great example.<\/p>\n

Is getting into the backyard easier than getting into the house?<\/h2>\n

And so the lesson I want so far is that getting into the backyard, quite frankly, is going to be a lot easier than making an entry into the home. I think that just makes sense.<\/p>\n

Even though the U.S. Supreme Court in a case called Florida v. Jardines, that’s where they said that the curtilage should be protected like the home itself, like the home itself, they did not use the word “the same as” the home. Getting into the backyard is different than getting into the living room.<\/p>\n

And so that’s an example here. It does make sense that if you have this silent alarm, you should be able to look at the perimeter of the home to see if there’s signs of forced entry. So you have exigency there.<\/p>\n

You also may have a form of implied consent. Because when people sign up for an alarm service like ADT, that is also going to notify the police. The person knows that, and it can be argued that they’re also implicitly agreeing that if that alarm does go off and they are not there to tell the police that it’s a false alarm, that the cops are going to look in the backyard to see if there’s a sign of forced entry.<\/p>\n

I mean, that’s probably how most burglars are going to do it anyway. They’re going to go into the backyard where they’re out of sight, and they can make their entry.<\/p>\n

What do you need before entering the house itself?<\/h2>\n

Getting into the home is going to take what I call burglar alarm plus.<\/p>\n

I personally would never force my way into a home unless I have a reason to believe that somebody could be in the home, a burglar in the home right now. So I’m looking for things like signs of forced entry. A car in the driveway that doesn’t belong there, you run the tag and it’s a different address. The neighbors saying the people are on vacation. A high increase of daytime burglaries in this area. Of course, signs of forced entry, an open door.<\/p>\n

But be careful there. You’re going to want to definitely make sure you announce. You don’t want to have an armed confrontation with the occupant who did set the alarm off and forgot to put the code in or something like that.<\/p>\n

Because in reality, most burglar alarms are false. Out of 100 burglar alarms, how many are truly real? Maybe five. I’m just guessing here, but that sounds about right, doesn’t it? The vast majority are false.<\/p>\n

So getting into the backyard I think is pretty easy with just the burglar alarm. Getting into the home, we want something plus.<\/p>\n

The short version<\/h2>\n