State v. Ferguson

¶1¶ 24. (concurring). I fully join in the majority decision, but write separately to note that if the police did what the dissent says that under the law they were required to do — namely, without trying to see if Ferguson was all right and that there was no one in the closet who was ill, perhaps life-threateningly ill, we might not be deciding Ferguson's appeal but, rather, an appeal in a civil lawsuit claiming that the police ignored their community-caretaking function and thus left a juvenile to die in his or her own alcohol-induced vomit. In my view, the distinctions between Dull and this case are clear, as the majority opinion so carefully explains. The police here should be commended for their thoroughness and concern.