Chimel v. California - Warrantless Emergency Search

Justice White wrote the dissent, in which Black joined. The dissenters felt that the Harris-Rabinowitz rule should remain in place. White felt that when the circumstances are urgent and probable cause exists, an emergency search may be a reasonable one. "It seems to me unreasonable to require the police to leave the scene in order to obtain a search warrant when they are already legally there to make a valid arrest." If the police did leave the scene to get a search warrant, the accomplices of the arrestee could remove evidence. The protection of privacy must be weighed against the risk of destruction of evidence.