What is the current state of the law on police search and detention of the occupants of a home during a search and arrest?

The police have "the limited authority to detain the occupants of the premises while a proper search is conducted" in order to protect themselves and others from harm. (Michigan v. Summers (1981) 452 U.S. 692, 705.) In a related context, the police may, incident to an in-home arrest, "as a precautionary matter and without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, look in closets and other spaces immediately adjoining the place of arrest from which an attack could be immediately launched. Beyond that, however, . . . there must be articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts, would warrant a reasonably prudent officer in believing that the area to be swept harbors an individual posing a danger to those on the arrest scene." (Maryland v. Buie (1990) 494 U.S. 325, 334, italics added.)

Defendant argues the authority to detain the occupants of house during a search or arrest is limited to situations where a warrant is first obtained, but we do not believe the rationale for the rule is so limited. (See Earle v. United States (D.D.C. 1992) 612 A.2d 1258, 1264 [protective sweep authorized where officers entered premises pursuant emergency exception based on report of gunshots]; United States v. Starnes (7th Cir. 2013) 741 F.3d 804, 810 [entry by consent; sweep of bedroom permissible]; People v. Ledesma (2003) 106 Cal.App.4th 857, 864 [entry for probation search; sweep permissible].) To be sure, the justification for the residential entry must satisfy the Fourth Amendment, whether it be a warrant, exigent circumstances, emergency aid, or consent, but once the police have lawfully entered the premises, in our view the authority

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to detain the occupants depends on the officer safety needs posed by a particular situation.