Also known as: fresh pursuits · hot pursuit
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A doctrine permitting police officers who have probable cause to arrest a suspect in a public place to pursue the suspect into a private dwelling without a warrant. Officers may then effect the arrest and conduct a search as broad as reasonably necessary to prevent escape, ensure safety, and seize weapons or evidence encountered.
A doctrine permitting police officers who have probable cause to arrest a suspect in a public place to pursue the suspect into a private dwelling without a warrant. Officers may then effect the arrest and conduct a search as broad as reasonably necessary to prevent escape, ensure safety, and seize weapons or evidence encountered.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A limitation on the privilege to use force to recapture chattels or reenter land, requiring that the force be used immediately or on fresh pursuit after an unlawful dispossession. The actor must believe the dispossession was unlawful and that the person against whom force is used has no claim of right.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A limitation on the privilege to use force to recapture chattels or reenter land, requiring that the force be used immediately or on fresh pursuit after an unlawful dispossession. The actor must believe the dispossession was unlawful and that the person against whom force is used has no claim of right.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
Officer Ramirez sees Fernando Farrell selling drugs on a public sidewalk and approaches with probable cause to arrest. Farrell runs into his nearby apartment and slams the door. Ramirez follows through the open doorway, arrests Farrell inside, and seizes the drugs visible on the kitchen table.
Officers chase an armed robber from the street into a house. Once inside they conduct a room-by-room search, seize a gun on a couch, and arrest the suspect hiding in a closet.
Officers develop probable cause to arrest Faith Fitzgerald at her apartment but wait outside without a warrant. When she steps onto the porch they arrest her there rather than following her back inside.
Police learn that Frank Fisher keeps stolen goods at his home but do not pursue him from a public place. They cannot enter without a warrant even though evidence might be destroyed.
An informant tells officers that Forrest Falconer just fled a robbery scene into an apartment building. Officers enter in pursuit, arrest Falconer, and seize the stolen cash in plain view.
Yes when officers have probable cause to arrest a suspect in a public place and the suspect retreats into a dwelling. The entry must be continuous and the search limited to preventing escape and ensuring safety.
Supporting sources
Carlos sees Mark driving a tractor across his field without permission. Carlos runs alongside, climbs aboard while the tractor is still moving, and uses moderate force to take control and steer it back onto his land.
The force must be used immediately or on fresh pursuit after dispossession. Any undue delay ends the privilege and requires resort to legal process instead.
Supporting sources
No. Only reasonable nondeadly force is permitted even during fresh pursuit. Deadly force is never justified solely to recapture chattels.
Supporting sources
In the property context a demand is ordinarily required before force unless the actor reasonably believes it would be useless or dangerous. Police pursuit of a fleeing suspect does not impose the same demand requirement.
Supporting sources
…the warrant requirement can only be excused by exigent circumstances, see, e. g. , Warden v. Hayden , 387 U. S. 294 (1967) (hot pursuit); cf. Preston v. United States , 376 U. S. 364, 367-368 (1964). But we deal here with an entire rubric of police conduct—necessarily swift action predicated upon the on-the-spot…