If a free society depends upon an informed citizenry exercising oversight of its government, then more people need to know how to handle themselves in a police encounter. Is cooperation always the best course of action? Or are there times to assert the constitutional right to refuse consent to a search of one’s home or belongings? A new documentary film answers those questions and more in an informative and entertaining series of skits narrated by Baltimore trial attorney Billy Murphy (from HBO’s The Wire). Learn how the safeguards of the Bill of Rights operate outside of the courthouse and on the street. Learn how to make smart decisions and respond effectively to police misconduct.
I thought about this after reading allegations of unlawful entry in Bakersfield (h/t Bilerico):
The loud banging on her doors woke up Star Hills at around 6:30 Tuesday morning.
"Open the door now!" shouted the official just outside her window.
Hills grabbed a video camera and recorded Kern County Sheriff's deputies and at least one unidentified bounty hunter entering her home without her consent.
"Is Mr. Baker in your house?" asked an unidentified sheriff's deputy.
Deputies and the bounty hunter were looking for Joseph Baker, who was charged with a misdemeanor count of assault on a peace officer. Baker was not at the home, but that did not stop them from continuing their search of Hills' home.
During the search, Hills repeatedly kept asking to see a warrant and for the names of the deputies and bounty hunter in her home.
"I have a bench warrant," responded the bounty hunter.
"Where is it?" Hills asked in return.
"Actually, I don't need a bench warrant ... I'm a bail enforcement agent," responded the bounty hunter.
Neither the sheriff's deputies nor the bounty hunter ever produced a search warrant. Hills said deputies also asked her for the whereabouts of her boyfriend, Alan Gjurovich.
Like many of our rights, it seems like the Fourth Amendment is no longer sacrosanct. The Fourth Amendment states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Whether or not bounty hunters have a right to enter a home depends on the state. Warrants are state tools and I don't think bounty hunters are required to obtain them. Depending on the state in which they operate, I think their basis for operation relies on state laws and the contract that a bail jumper signed with the bond agency where "part of this agreement allows a bounty hunter to enter your property to re-arrest you if you attempt to escape." It does not, however, give them necessarily the right to enter a third party's residence without permission, even with the fugitive inside.
More on the Bakersfield story here.
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