A protective sweep is a limited search of a structure for people who may be a threat to law enforcement officers after they arrest a subject or subjects. The legal reasoning behind a protective sweep is “to allow officers to ensure their own safety, and that of those on the scene, by searching in the vicinity of the arrest” (Nolo, 2017). Protective sweeps were ruled in favor of law enforcement in the Supreme Court case of Maryland v. Buie. In this case, arrest warrants were issued for Buie and his accomplice in regards to an armed robbery. Upon serving the arrest warrant at Buie’s residence in which they took Buie into custody, one of the officer’s subsequently looked in the basement to ensure the other suspect was not hiding down there. While
