Can police force me to open a locked safe?

[FakeBoobsRule]

They have to have a warrant to come in your house and the warrant has to specifically list what they are looking for and where they are going to look for it. If the warrant does not list the safe they have to call the judge to get another warrant to open the safe.

if the warrant list the property as being searched, it means anything and everything in the house, in the cars in the driveway, EVERYTHING.

Warrants dont go into detail such as, The safe in the closet, or the lockbox under the bed. Thats only in television to prolong the story to fit into a hour timeslot.

I saw this thread a few months ago and forgot to comment. I think you are both right. It could go either way. It is going to depend on where you live and the crime the warrant is being used to investigate. If you live in a county or jurisdiction that is prosecutor friendly, a warrant for the property would probably be enough. If you live in a jurisdiciton that is defendent friendly, then the warrant should probably list specific items. The crime that is being investigated might also come into play. If they think you might be in possesion of drugs then the safe would be a reasonable area to search. If they think you stole the Mona Lisa and the safe is the size of a shoebox, then it can be argued that the warrant that didn't list the safe should have been off limits because the painting would have never fit in there. But then a smart prosecutor would argue that you had sold it and they were looking for proceeds from the sale. Then you have the whole Fruit of the poisonous tree versus inevitable discovery arguments. Maybe even that the cops were acting on good faith by opening the safe even though it was not specifically listed. So it could probably go both ways open to interpretation depending on the crime, evidence, judge, jurisdiction.

It varies from school to school. Where I'm at, the only time they can enter my room is only during emergencies or have probable cause.

You realize you need probable cause and a warrant to enter a house or probable cause and an exception to the warrant requirement (exigent circumstance) to enter without a warrant. So if they can come into your dorm with just probable cause, you definitely are getting the short end of the civil rights stick living in the dorm.