When can a police officer enter a suspect's home without a warrant?

Permitting police officers the "limited intrusion" (Michigan v. Summers, supra, 452 U.S. at p. 700, 101 S.Ct. at p. 2593) of temporarily prohibiting entry to a dwelling when they have a reasonable suspicion that contraband or evidence of a crime is inside, while the officers themselves remain outside, will enable them to carry out their investigations free from the fear that such evidence or contraband will be destroyed. At the same time, it may prevent a greater intrusion, such as a warrantless entry and search of the dwelling. The policy of the Fourth Amendment is to prevent the government from [17 Cal.4th 388] unnecessarily intruding on an individual's privacy rights. If police officers have a "middle ground" of barring entry to a suspect's dwelling for a limited period during

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Our conclusion seeks to minimize the intrusion on the individual's Fourth Amendment interests, while at the same time recognizing that the "operational necessities" of police investigation justify a limited and temporary form of seizure based on less than probable cause. (See Soldal v. Cook County, supra, 506 U.S. at p. 66, fn. 9, 113 S.Ct. at p. 546, fn. 9.)