Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

Re: search and seizure protocols

A protective sweep authorizes law enforcement to search anywhere within the environs of an arrested person where another person reasonable may be hiding. For example, police could search on the other side of a bed, or in a closet, but not under a mattress (unless clearly bulging with some human size object suffocating between mattress and box springs.

It must also be limited in time: five minutes okay; half-hour likely not.

The warrantless search exception is intended to protect the officers.