Legal Question in Criminal Law in Tennessee

The District Attorney's office cannot give "permission." Permission to enter a house for a search for criminal activity is called a search warrant, and it comes from a magistrate.

It sounds like a police officer called the District Attorney for legal advice because of an emergency situation, probably asking if a search warrant was necessary. The District Attorney would correctly inform the officer that under certain emergency situations no warrant is required.

For example, if there is credible exidence of a ticking time bomb in a house, the police do not have to wait to obtain a warrant before going inside and clearing everyone out of the house. If witnesses report that a registered sex offender had dragged a screaming child into a house, the officers do not have to delay before entering in a search for the child and perhaps stopping a rape.

Later, of course, the lawfulness of the entry can be reviewed in court.