R v Stairs
Search incident to arrest of a home — heightened privacy interest requires reasonable suspicion of a safety concern, evidence concern, or escape risk in the surrounding area.
At a glance
Stairs limited the scope of search incident to arrest in a home. Police may search the area immediately surrounding an arrest in a home only where they have reasonable suspicion that there is a safety, evidence preservation, or escape concern in that area.
Material facts
Police entered a house to arrest Stairs for assault on his partner. While arresting him, an officer searched a basement room and found drugs.
Issues
What is the scope of search incident to arrest in a home?
Held
Search unlawful on the facts. New trial ordered.
Ratio decidendi
Search incident to arrest of a person in their home requires more than the traditional incidental-to-arrest authority. For the area surrounding the arrest, police need reasonable suspicion that there is a safety, evidence preservation, or escape concern. The privacy interest in the home is heightened.
Reasoning
Moldaver and Jamal JJ (majority) held that the home is a deeply private space; the traditional incidental-to-arrest doctrine cannot be transplanted from the street. Reasonable suspicion is the calibrated threshold.
Significance
Reshapes police search practices in domestic-violence and other in-home arrests. Heightens evidentiary requirements for any search beyond the immediate person and reach.
How to cite (McGill 9e)
R v Stairs, 2022 SCC 11, [2022] 1 SCR 169.
Bench
Wagner CJ, Moldaver J, Karakatsanis J, Côté J, Brown J, Rowe J, Martin J, Kasirer J, Jamal J
Source: scc-csc.lexum.com