Do the police have the right to coerce they way into your house to do a welfare check on a child? Can I say no

Question

They told us they DID NOT NEED a warrant, asked if we had a child in the house and we said yes, and they said stand back, we are coming in. This is while another officer is standing there with his hand on his gun, holster strap undone, with flashlights in our eyes at 2am. They did not tell us it was for a welfare check on the child until they get in the house. Talk about feeling violated!

Answer 1

The "catch all" reasonings that allow for this type of conduct by authorities is one called "Suspicion"--- and using this-- they have the right to do damn near anything that they care to do !! If brought to task for an answer for their behavior in this instance one just has to assume that they would explain something like this-------we had cause to suspect the situation as being dangerous to the "welfare" of the child in question----- and that would be that !!!
If you felf violated by THIS incident---stay tuned---there are things coming down the road with the police-state mentality running rampant these days that will make this incident look as though they treated you to a night out on the town in comparison !!!!!!

Answer 2

Unfortunately this seems to the way things are going these day--however within reason.
You report a child abused and they search you over several times in the middle of the night
If you have had any complaints against your child or you about your child then they pretty much can do whatever they want including taking the child in the middle of the night in their jammies and nothing else.
Depending upon what state and county in that state they are laws unto themselves until they get a smart person who will stand up to them -- then it is only for a short while then they move onto someone else--all in the name of justice.
But on the other hand there are those children you are saved by this action.
Yes you have the right to say NO
depending upon who is there (officers) will determine what they will do next however. We are still America after all

Answer 3

I had this happen to me recently, too. I was scared to death! In my case, my son's social worker (they finally called him) told the police that my son would be okay with us for now, so they finally went away. What that worker told the police before they came, I'll never know but it probably wasn't anything nice. The next day it was acknowledged that it was all an over-reaction, due to somethlng my son said to the worker on the phone.

A lot of families are going through this stuff right now. In the effort to keep every child safe, a lot of violation is happening. Every parent seems to be a suspect. There doesn't seem to be anything you can so about it except try to cooperate so you don't get arrested.

Answer 4

Where a child/children are involved, if they have probable cause, they can enter your house any time they want, NO WARRANT needed. Any kind of disturbance within your family and bother your neighbors and they report you, the police have the right to search your house and check on the children living there.
If they see things are not up to standard they have the right to remove the child/children from the home and place them into children protective services, until a judge makes his decision.

Answer 5

To me it seems that they must have had a very serious reason to believe the child was in some kind of danger in your home.
especially if they came at that hour of the mornng. I hope you are able to figure this out. Without more information there is no way to answer your question. When it comes to children and their welfare I don't think they need to have a warrant.
The childs welfare comes before anything else.
What did they say you did to cause this "Welfare Check?"
there had to be a good reason.

Answer 6

anytime someone calls the police andsays a child is being mistreated they can come in your home anytime they want with NO WARRANT,and do a welfare check,if they see the child is ok and the home is clean, food in the home,the child is safe,has a room of their own,and find no evidence of anything wrong most of the time a report is wriiten and filed and nothing more is done unless more than 1 complaint is made by different people,hope this helps you

Answer 7

If they have reasonable beleif or probable cause to beleive a crime has been done, yes they can come in without a warrant.

also in some states they can come in for a child or person welfare check ( but if they find other items my be reistricted in the use of them in court)

Answer 8

They have the right to do it, when I was younger and my parents used to fight all the time and the neighbor used to call the police all the time, so it got to the point that even if they were not fighting the police would stop by and just ask to see us, I can remember being woken up at night by policemen asking if me and my brother were alright, you must have things going on in your family that you tell us about, the police just didn't drive to your street and say OK lets go into this house, they were called for a reason?

Answer 9

You might not like it but it may save a child's life. If you were reluctant to allow them to see the child it would have given them grave concern for the child's welfare.

Do not feel violated. You should have been happy to show them your child was healthy and well cared for.

If they turned up as the result of a report from someone that thought the child was somehow in danger then it depends if that person was thought to have made that report honestly even if mistaken.

Your redress should not be at the police but towards the persons that made the report if it was maliscious!

Answer 10

The problem with this is that in some states, police don't need a warrant, hence the old Black woman shot to death last year in Atlanta. In other states, they do need a warrant.