Cite as 356 Ark. 460 (2004)
to refuse consent to search. Secondly, the State claims that our state constitution does not require police officers to disclose all information known to them before a consensual search may take place. According to the State, the circuit judge in the case at hand decided to suppress the evidence seized for both reasons. Because we conclude that the circuit judge correctly construed the Arkansas Constitution to require law enforcement officers to advise home dwellers of their right to refuse to consent to a search, we need not address the second point raised by the State.
This case presents the second opportunity for this court to consider whether the police procedure known as "knock and talk" is constitutionally permissible under Arkansas Constitution Article 2, Section 15, in the past two years. In Griffin v. State, 347 Ark. 788, 67 S.W.3d 582 (2002), a constitutional attack was mounted against the procedure under our state constitution. We decided that case, however, on the ground that police officers had begun an illegal search of the defendant's car and shed before they approached the defendant's front door to ask for consent to search. Hence, the Griffin opinion did not decide the validity of the "knock-and-talk" procedure under our state constitution. Nevertheless, in three concurring opinions, the "knock-and-talk" procedure was called into question under the state constitution by three justices of this court. See Griffin v. State, supra (Corbin, J., concurring; Brown, J., concurring; Hannah, J., concurring).
A brief description of the "knock-and-talk" procedure is in order. The procedure has become fashionable as an alternative to obtaining a search warrant when police officers do not have sufficient probable cause to obtain a search warrant. What generally occurs is that several law enforcement officers accost a home dweller on the doorstep of his or her home and request consent to search that home. If an oral consent is given, the search proceeds. What is found by police officers may then form the basis for probable cause to obtain a search warrant and result in the subsequent seizure of contraband. It is the intimidation effect of multiple police officers appearing on a home dweller's doorstep, sometimes in uniform and armed, and requesting consent to search without advising the home dweller of his or her right to refuse consent that presents the constitutional problem.
[2–4] This court recently discussed the constitutional ramifications of warrantless entries into private homes:
A warrantless entry into a private home is presumptively unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466
