When Police Come to the House
Ala. Code § 15-5-3 — a search warrant on probable cause and an affidavit, and a door broken only after a refusal
A search warrant issues only on probable cause, supported by an affidavit naming or describing the person and particularly describing the property and the place to be searched.
Who handles this in Alabama: Alabama State Bar Lawyer Referral Service; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Alabama directory.
- Property that was stolen or embezzled.
- Property used as the means of committing a felony.
- Property held to be used to commit a public offense, or handed to someone else to hide it or keep it from being found.
Notice before the door. To carry out a search warrant, an officer may break open a door or window of a house only after giving notice of the officer's authority and purpose and being refused admittance. The same holds for an officer making an arrest without a warrant at a dwelling house.
- A search warrant is carried out and returned to the judge or magistrate who issued it within 10 days after its date, and after that it is void.
- An officer who takes property under a search warrant gives a receipt to the person it was taken from, or in whose possession it was found, when asked.
The Fourth Amendment draws its firmest line at the entrance to a home, and the Supreme Court of the United States has held where it falls in situations police meet at a door. Absent consent or exigent circumstances, officers may not enter a home without a warrant to make a routine felony arrest. Where one occupant consents to a search of a shared home and another who is physically present expressly refuses, the search is unreasonable as to the one who refused. And officers may enter without a warrant when they have an objectively reasonable basis for believing someone inside is seriously injured or imminently threatened with such injury. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.
How a warrant is served is also measured by the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that whether officers knocked and announced their presence before entering is part of whether the entry was reasonable, and that the knock and announce principle forms part of that analysis rather than being a rigid rule without exceptions. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.
Sources for this section (10)
- Ala. Code § 15-5-3 — Probable Cause and Affidavit Required
- Ala. Code § 15-5-2 — Grounds for Issuance
- Ala. Code § 15-5-9 — Authority of Serving Officer to Break into House
- Ala. Code § 15-5-12 — Warrant to Be Executed and Returned Within 10 Days
- Ala. Code § 15-10-4 — Arrest Without Warrant - Duty of Arresting Officer; Authority of Officer to Break and Enter Dwelling House
- Ala. Code § 15-5-11 — Receipt for Property Taken
- Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573 (1980) — Warrantless entry into a home to make a routine arrest is barred
- Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103 (2006) — A present occupant's refusal defeats another occupant's consent
- Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398 (2006) — Police may enter to render emergency aid
- Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927 (1995) — Knocking and announcing is part of whether an entry is reasonable
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Alabama attorney.