By James Jefferson, The Associated Press
Little Rock, Ark. (AP) -- A divided state Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the state’s so-called “knock-and-talk” procedure that allows police to enter and search a residence without a search warrant if the resident gives consent.
In a 4-3 decision, the high court affirmed a ruling from Pope County that the state constitution requires police to advise a resident of the right to refuse to give consent.
“It is the intimidation effect of multiple police officers appearing on a home dweller’s doorstep, sometimes in uniform and armed, and requesting consent to search without advising the home dweller of his or her right to refuse consent that presents the constitutional problem,” Justice Robert Brown wrote.
Arkansas has “adopted and endorsed the principle of privacy in a citizen’s home clearly and unmistakably since the time Arkansas was admitted to statehood,” wrote Brown -- reason enough, he said, to deviate from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures did not require knowledge of the right to refuse consent as a prerequisite to a showing of voluntary consent.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Tom Glaze accused the majority of looking beyond the Fourth Amendment to protect state citizens regarding consensual searches and reinterpreting the state constitution to give greater protection to Arkansas.
“In other words, even if the resident/suspect voluntarily gives a consent to search, the search will be invalid unless the officer says the magic words, ‘You have the right to refuse to consent to this search,”’ Glaze wrote.
He called the change “totally unwarranted and unnecessary.”