Question

[Bakerloo]

3 days ago a friend of my son in law, who is a diabetic passed out in his apartment. His carpool partner became worried when he didn't answer the door. The guy opened the door and found him unconscious. A call to 911 brought an ambulance and the police. He was and still is in a diabetic coma.

The police found needles and suspected it was a drug overdose. They dumped every drawer in the place, overturned the couch and went through his closets.

My SIL lives across the street and rushed over when he saw the police and ambulance. They were in the process of dumping drawers. He told them to look in the fridge and they would find his insulin.

He had nothing illegal, so they didn't find anything. My question is, can they do this without a search warrant?

[Rogue187]

In all good conscience.
Yes, they can..
If he had needles, they don't know what they are searching for..they needed to find out what drug it could have been that put him in to that state.
They were searching to to find if it was an illegal drug.
Since your SIL told the officers to look in the fridge and they found his insulin they now had a cause to his state. The cops could tell the medics that there is insulin and they could begin the proper course of action.
If they found an illegal drug they could use the appropriate anti drug stopper.

If he wasn't wearing a medic alert then that's bad on his part..

[Ron-Solo]

Rogue pretty much summed it up. It is a life & death situation and time is critical.

Hope he recovers soon.

[Bakerloo]

Fair enough. I never thought about the fact that they may have been looking for the drug that could have caused an OD.
30 yrs old and has never taken his diabetes seriously. Still out, BP drops every time they try to do dialysis and fluid is building in his lungs. Not sure he is going to make it.
Thanks for the insight.

[Ron-Solo]

Well, he is in my prayers.

[robocop1051]

Rouge187, very well stated.

Bakerloo, not all searches are meant for incarceration. Well being and welfare searches are actually very common.

[Fjold]

That's one of the times that you thank the cops for trying their best to save his life. Too many times people think that it's just another junkie OD'ing and don't give a damn.

[rockblaster]

Thank the officers and send a letter of commendation to their superiors!

[retired]

I hope he makes it and if he does, this incident will be a wake up call to him to manage his diabetes once and for all. I am not trying to sound harsh, just hoping he realizes that if he survives this, that he could have died and decides to change his lifestyle so he can live.

[NuGunner]

Yes. Its covered under the community caretaking doctorine. The object of the search is not for evidence but rather for information to assist with the medical aid of the individual.