Whether a “reasonably prudent officer,” who has arrested a suspect outside a home, has sufficient “articulable facts” to form an objectively reasonable belief “that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene” will depend on the totality of the evidence. Entry into a home without a warrant is presumptively unreasonable and therefore not the norm. A protective sweep is an exception to the warrant requirement and a species of exigent circumstances. The State bears the burden of proving the necessity of entering the home to conduct a protective sweep. Some factors that may be considered in determining whether a protective sweep is justified when an arrest is made outside the home are (1) whether the police have information that others are in the home with access to weapons and a potential reason to use them or otherwise pose a dangerous threat; (2) the imminence of any potential threat; (3) the proximity of the arrest to the home; (4) whether the suspect was secured or resisted arrest and prolonged the police presence at the scene; and (5) any other relevant circumstances. Entry into the home and a protective sweep cannot be based on a self-created exigency by the police.
These five factors provide the prosecution with a roadmap for what they need to justify a warrantless entry and protective sweep of a home. It will be interesting to see what caselaw develops regarding the catch-all fifth factor.