When Police Are Called to a House
IC 35-33-1-1.5 — at a domestic violence call, all reasonable means to prevent further violence
An officer responding to an alleged crime involving domestic or family violence uses all reasonable means to prevent further violence, including these.
Who handles this in Indiana: legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Indiana directory.
- Transporting, or getting transport for, the alleged victim and each child to a safe place to meet a domestic violence counselor, a family member or a friend.
- Helping the alleged victim take toiletries, medication and necessary clothing.
- Giving the alleged victim immediate written notice of the victim's rights.
The officer may take a firearm, ammunition or deadly weapon from the scene where the officer saw it there, has probable cause that a domestic violence crime occurred, and reasonably believes the weapon puts the victim at immediate risk of serious bodily injury or was used in the crime. The officer provides for its safe storage while a related proceeding is pending.
Someone arrested for one of a list of crimes against a family or household member, domestic battery, battery, strangulation, stalking, invasion of privacy and burglary among them, may not be released on bail for at least 24 hours from the arrest, and not until a bail hearing in open court.
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.
Sources for this section (5)
- IC 35-33-1-1.5 — Crime involving domestic or family violence; duties of law enforcement officers; confiscation of firearm, ammunition, or deadly weapon
- IC 35-33-8-6.5 — Twenty-four hour bail holding period for person arrested for certain domestic violence crimes
- 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
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Indiana attorney.