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During the summer months, posts routinely crop up on social media purporting to give police-approved instructions on how to avoid criminal charges when breaking car windows to rescue locked-in dogs on hot days: These messages have evolved to include babies in the advisory: These messages are occasionally accompanied by clarifying statements noting that this advice may only applied to a certain geographical areas (such as the UK), but we found no record of any police department in the U.S. officially approving these specific actions. In fact, several police departments have responded on social media to say that they cannot guarantee immunity from criminal charges to those who break car windows, regardless of the circumstances. The Avon and Somerset Constabulary, for example, responded to one such on Facebook in July 2016 by saying: The Hot Springs, Arkansas, Police Department also posted< on Facebook later that summer to say: https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FHotSpringsPD%2Fposts%2F1234730299880203&width=500 This form of Facebook message was also circulated in 2015, and at that time at least one UK police department responded and said that citizens should be prepared to face the consequences should they damage someone else's property: However, at least two U.S. states have laws protecting rescuers who break into cars to save lives (human or canine). In March 2016, Florida passed a law describing the circumstances in which citizens can avoid prosecution in such a situation, as the Miami Herald reported: California, where it is illegal to leave a child unattended in a car, passed a law in September 2016 allowing citizens to rescue dogs from hot cars. Both the aforementioned laws, however, require concerned citizens to contact law enforcement before taking matters into their own hands. In June 2017, Oregon also added a Good Samaritan law allowing people to break into hot cars to save a pet or a child. Under the new law, a person breaking into the car must meet the following requirements: However, the law is also explicit in that it does not limit the liability of a person for gross negligence or for reckless, wanton or intentional misconduct. In summary, we recommend against taking legal advice from a Facebook post. Various countries and states have different laws governing the actions that one can take to save a life without fear of legal consequences, and in almost all cases in the U.S. and the U.K. it is best to contact law enforcement before taking action.
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