You are quietly going about your business inside your house when there is a knock at the door. You peer out of the window and see a pair of police officers standing outside and telling you to open up. Do you have to open the door, or are you within your rights not to?
The law does not require you to open the door. It does, however, give the police the right to enter anyway in certain circumstances.
A search warrant
If the officers can show you a valid search warrant for the property, then you should open the door. Otherwise, they will likely knock it open themselves, leaving you to foot the bill for repairs.
Not all warrants are valid, though. Mistakes over the address, the date or the lack of a court’s signature could make one invalid. If they do tell you they have one, ask them to hold it up to the window or push it under the door so you can check it first.
In hot pursuit
People on the run from the police sometimes flee into another person’s house in their attempt to get away. Perhaps they hide for a minute and hope the police will run past without noticing, or perhaps they run straight through one door or window and out the other side.
If the police are in hot pursuit of them, the law usually allows them to follow them into that property – even if it is not theirs. If that property belongs to you, this is a situation where opening the door may be best.
An immediate threat to life or evidence
The police may also force their way in if they believe it is necessary to prevent someone from suffering harm or to prevent evidence from being destroyed.
If none of those things is true, then you are typically better off refusing them entry, especially if you believe they are there to investigate a crime. What starts as an innocent-sounding request to open the door can often put a person one step closer to arrest and in need of a strong legal defense.