When Police Are Called to a House
La. R.S. 46:2140 — an abuser who is breaking a protective order is arrested immediately
An order broken means an arrest. If an officer has reason to believe a family or household member or dating partner has been abused and the abuser is violating a restraining order, an injunction or a protective order, the officer immediately arrests the abuser.
- With no order in place, the officer uses all reasonable means to prevent further abuse.
- That includes arresting on probable cause of a felony, whether or not the officer saw it, and arresting for a misdemeanor that endangers the abused person's physical safety.
- It includes helping the abused person get medical treatment, and getting to a shelter or a safe place.
- It includes telling the abused person of the right to start criminal or civil proceedings and of the protective order.
Faced with conflicting accounts, the officer weighs each one separately to find the predominant aggressor, considering the witnesses, each person's injuries, whether someone acted in self defense, any prior complaints, and the welfare of children present. The person an existing order was issued against is presumed to be the predominant aggressor.
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 (4)
- La. R.S. 46:2140 — Law enforcement officers; duties
- 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 Louisiana attorney.