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Josh Dehaas: Supreme Court gives police greater license to snoop around your home

Ruling is a blow to property rights

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You probably know that police need a warrant to enter your house or back yard, barring an emergency like someone screaming for help from a bedroom (known as exigent circumstances). You probably also realize that, despite this warrant requirement, police sometimes walk up your driveway, knock on the door and start asking questions.

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How can that be? The answer is the common law concept of an “implied licence,” which says that, although our home is our castle and no one can intrude without our permission, we grant exemptions to members of the public to approach our doors to communicate. This ensures Amazon can drop off our packages, our neighbour can drop by to gossip about that other neighbour, and the police can ring the doorbell to ask if we have any footage of whoever smashed car windows last night.

Josh Dehaas: Supreme Court gives police greater license to snoop around your home Back to video

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