“...but his wife had granted them permission by calling 911.”
You don’t grant anything by merely calling 911. You can grant entry as part of the conversation after calling 911. That’s probably what you meant.
I want to make it clear folks don’t have to fear calling 911, because that would automatically give police the right to enter their home.
If someone calls from inside your house requesting the police to arrive, then you have granted them permission to enter and to search the house for evidence of a crime. 911 is an EMERGENCY number. The police do not have time to stop by the courthouse and obtain a search warrant and the call itself is probable cause for entry and search.
So if you don't want the police to enter your home, make sure you don't have any phones in your house that someone might use to call 911.
And as I said earlier. If someone inside a home calls 911 to report a crime in progress, the police don't have the right to enter the home, they have an OBLIGATION to do so.
“I want to make it clear folks don’t have to fear calling 911, because that would automatically give police the right to enter their home.”
Problem is that some police are already using any 911 call as a pretext to doing a warrentless entry. A close coworker here in Missouri lives in a “college” town with an over zeolous PD. This friend is a retired U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer (a corpsman). His ederly father lives with him and has medical emergencies on occasion. One evening, his father was having a mild seizure (had occurred before). My friend called 911 for an ambulance to transport his father to the hospital...a calm rational call. The POLICE arrived first and forced their way into his home past his wife at the door. There was no probable cause for the police to respond unless it was to render aid after requesting entry. They didn’t, and felt they had the authority to do so. Fortunately, the ambulance arrived and it was clear that nothing “criminal” was going on (where they got the idea that there was is uncertain). My friend didn’t pursue this issue because small town police in rural Missouri are not to be messed with.
This, in my opinion, was a violation of my friends 4th Ammendment rights. The PD abused and exceeded any authority it had. There was no reason for them to force entry - enter a residence without permission - but they did. Of course nothing criminal was going on, and there was nothing to hide, but the police were violating my friends constitutional rights...in my opinion.