public safety exception
public-safety exception. Evidence. An exception to the Miranda rule, allowing into evidence an otherwise suppressible statement by a defendant concerning information that the police needed at the time it was made in order to protect the public. • If, for example, a victim tells the police that an assailant had a gun, and upon the suspect’s arrest the police find a holster but no gun, they would be immediately entitled to ask where the gun is. Under the public-safety exception, the suspect’s statement of the gun’s location would be admissible.
