Knox, Knox. Who’s there? The Fourth Amendment. An interesting case in Heath, Ohio.

By Kent Mallett, NewarkAdvocate.com:

Fire Chief Mark Huggins and Newark Auto Electric owner Ronald Lohr Jr. await a judge’s ruling on the city’s requirement of a key box for firefighters to gain entry into the business.

Newark Auto Electric, 357 S. 30th St., appealed the Board of Building Appeals’ 2-2 vote, which upheld the city’s mandate for installation of the key box to avoid forcing entry.

Both sides have filed their briefs, the latest Monday, and the case sits before Licking County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Marcelain.

The city had an ordinance since 1996 requiring all new commercial buildings to install the boxes, but the current plan will expand the requirement to all 500 new and existing Heath businesses not open 24 hours a day.

Firefighters open the box with a key, then retrieve the key to the business from inside the box. Lohr maintains the procedure violates his Fourth Amendment protections against illegal search and seizure.

“Forced entry to a premise during an emergency creates a risk to firefighters by subjecting them to the hazards associated with broken glass, splintered wood and the unknowns of entering a structure at a point other than one designed specifically for entrance,” the fire chief’s attorney, Jonathan Diernbach, said in the court filing.

The department does not need a key to gain entry and requiring a key box violates a business owner’s property rights, Lohr’s attorney, Dawn Manley, said in her Monday response to Diernbach’s argument.

“Due process does not allow the application of the key box provision to a pre-existing building which is not an immediate nuisance or safety threat,” Manley said.

Fire department officials, Manley said, said in the BBA hearing they could use the key to enter the business when there is not an obvious fire or threat to a person.

Diernbach disputed Manley’s interpretation of testimony from the hearing.

“Evidence heard by the BBA in this matter clearly indicated that the key box would only be used by firefighting personnel in the case of an emergency occurring at NAE property and would not be used for any other purpose.”

Lohr has said in case of fire, he prefers firefighters “break the door and do your job.”

Newark Auto Electric has been in business for 20 years without a single call to the fire department, Manley said.

“The likelihood of a structural fire at any one location is low, the likelihood of a firefighter getting injured is even lower, and the likelihood of firefighter injury from forced entry is minuscule,” Manley writes.