Editing Search and seizure (section)

===Exceptions to the warrant requirement===
Courts have also established an "[[exigent circumstances]]" exception to the warrant requirement. "Exigent circumstances" simply means that the officers must act quickly. Typically, this is because police have a reasonable belief that evidence is in imminent danger of being removed or destroyed, but there is still a [[probable cause]] requirement. Exigent circumstances may also exist where there is a continuing danger, or where officers have a reasonable belief that people in need of assistance are present. This includes when the police are in "hot pursuit of a fleeing felon." In this circumstance, so long as there is [[probable cause]], police may follow the suspect into a residence and seize any evidence in plain view.

Certain limited searches are also allowed during an investigatory stop or incident to an arrest. These searches may be referenced as refined searches.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Heder|first1=Bill O.|title=The Development of Search and Seizure Law in Public Schools|journal=Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal|volume=1999|date=1999|page=71|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/byuelj1999&div=16&id=&page=|access-date=11 September 2017}}</ref>

While the interpretations of the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] are binding on all federal courts interpreting the U.S. Constitution, there is some variance in the specifics from state to state, for two reasons.  First, if an issue has not been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, then a lower court makes a ruling of "first impression" on the issue, and sometimes two different lower courts will reach different interpretations. Second, virtually all state constitutions also contain provisions regarding search and seizure.  Those provisions cannot reduce the protections offered by the U.S. Constitution, but they can provide additional protections such that a search deemed "reasonable" under the U.S. Constitution might nonetheless be unreasonable under the law of a particular state.