Do you have to open door to police? Legislators' shootings raise issue
By: Amanda Lee Myers
USA today
.... It's the middle of the night and someone;s banging on your front door. you see a flashing police lights and hear a voice saying "This is the police. Open up!"
.....
Do you open the door?
..... Many Americans are asking themselves what their options are in such a situation - both legally and realistically - following what authorities are calling the "political assassination: of Minnesota state Representatives Melissa Hortman and her husband in a series of attacks that also left Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife wounded.
..... the suspect in the case, Vance Boelter, 57, was dressed like a law enforcement officer, complete with black tactical vest, and carried a flashlight as an officer would do, according to an affidavit field in federal court and written by special agent Terry Getsch of the FBI.
....
Boelter also was driving an SUV equipped with a Fake "POLICE" license plate and "law enforcement-style emergency lights," the affidavit said.
..... "Those is the police. Open the door," Boelter shouted outside at around 2 AM. on June 14, [2025]
according to Hoffman's family members,Getsch wrote in the affidavit.
..... They opened it.
.....
"You're kind of disarmed in the middle of the night, in the fog of sleep," said George Kirkham, a criminologist and professor emeritus at Florida State University who has also worked as a police officer.
..... Kirkham said even with his expert background, he probably would have opened the door, too.
..... "These were very, very smart people, this legislator and her husband, and I'm sure they had been the recipient of threats, and they were probably far more cautious than the average person," he added.
.....
"It is a clarion call for all of us to be more careful."
..... So what should you do?
Get the paperwork
..... If an officer is knocking on your door, the American Civil Libertines Union recommended talking thorough the door and asking for identification.
..... "You do not have to let them in unless they can show you a warrant signed by a judicial officer that lists your address as a place to be searched or that has your name on it as the subject of an arrest warrant," the ACLU advised.
.....
If the officer says they have a warrant, you should ask to see it through a window or, if it's a paper copy, have them slip it under the door for proof. Many warrants these days are electronic, and police can even text them, Kirkham said.
..... Marc Lopez, a former prosecutor who is now a defense attorney specializing in domestic violence and drunk driving cases in Indianapolis, said there are very few circumstances in which an officer will knock on your door out of nowhere and need to get inside.
..... those circumstances include pursuing a felon, hearing screaming or another sing of an emergency inside, or having a warrant.
..... Absent those emergencies they can't come into your house," he said. "I would advise anybody, do not open your door. You have no duty to respond."
.....
If you feel you must respond, he said to avoid opening the door at all costs unless police have a warrant. if they do, he recommends asking to see it, through he pointed out that in some states like Indiana, officers do not have to prove they have one.
..... "That can get kind of tricky," he said.
Another option: Call 911
..... Minnesota police have advised a nervous public that if someone shows up at their house claiming to be the police, they can call 911 to verify it's legitimate.
..... "It is okay to remain in your vehicle or home and not open the window or door until your receive confirmation from dispatch," the Richfield Police Department [NJ] posted on Facebook on June 14. [2025]
..... Kirkham agreed that it's a good option and said as a former officer himself, he wouldn't mind waiting for such a call.
..... However, Lopez pointed out that some police might not be as patient. And there have been plenty of misunderstandings - sometimes deadly - between police knocking on doors at night and nervous people inside who don't know who it is.,
..... On April 5, 2023, for example, the New Mexico Department of Justice went to the wrong house while responding to a domestic violence call in Farmington just before midnight. The homeowner, Robert Dotson, answered the door holding a gun. Officers immedia4ely opened fire, killing him, according to police and body camera footage of the incident.
..... And then there's the case of Brreonna Taylor, an unarmed woman killed by police who were serving a no-knock search warrant in Louisville around midnight on March 13, 2020.
..... The plainclothes officers sued a battering ram to open the apartment door as par of a drug trafficking investigation. Taylor's boyfriend - fired one shot, prompting police to spray dozens of bullets into the apartment. no drugs were found.
..... Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today