I’ve watched a few TV shows where law enforcement is searching for drugs and completely tears up a suspect’s home and property to look for it. They tear open holes in the ceiling, walls, floors, and cut up mattresses and stuff.
I’m wondering is this an accurate representation of real life or dramatized for TV? If it occurs in real life, how often do search warrants result in destruction of property? Does the government pay for the damages if no drugs (or whatever they are searching for) are found?
This has been known to happen in real life, yes. I suppose it’s partly a function of things like how sure they are that there is contraband there, how much contraband they are expecting to find, and how much difficulty they’re having finding it. That being said, I have heard of disarrays that were described as being somewhat disproportionate to the circumstances.
I believe that they are not liable for any mess, contraband or not.
Because of a couple of idiot cousins of mine, my aunt had a search warrant served on her. While the police didn’t cut open mattresses or tear open walls, they pretty musch trashed the house. It took her a couple months to get everything back in place. She also got a couple hundred bucks for a few things that were broken during the search. All that was found was the remnants of a meth lab in a shed and one cousin spent a month in jail for it.
And if the cops DO find anything…it’s on!
I was a bartender and the Narcs used to come in late and tell the BEST stories.
I remember when they made a big bust (it was on the news) and all the destruction: tore down wallboard, pulled up carpets. And they KNEW it was a rental. Told me “Thats what they get for renting to dopers.”
Harsh.
When a warrant is issued the SCOTUS has ruled that the police are subject to physical restraints of that warrant.
When you get a judge to issue a warrant you have to tell the judge what you’re looking for.
So for instance, if I say I am looking for a machine gun and that is the only thing on the warrant. With the Supreme Court ruling, the police, FBI or whoever, can only look in places where a machine gun could possible be concealed.
So the police couldn’t go into my home and tear apart my computer to see if I was hiding a machine gun in that computer, because it would be physically impossible for a machine gun to fit in a computer.
Well it didn’t take law enforcement to realize this was a severe limitation on their abilites. This is why most warrants not only include the actual item the cops are looking for but also something minor and very tiny, such a drugs. This will allow them to look in places they normally couldn’t look in.
Police could be held liable for intentional destruction of property, but this would be handled in a civil type suit. Un-intentional destruction or making a mess is just “too bad” for the part of the person being searched.
If the cops scatter your underwear all over the floor, it’s a mess but nothing is harmed. If they accidently knock over a vase that’s one thing, if they intentionally break the vase to “send you a message,” that’s another.
Also a homeowner’s or renters insuarnce may cover some actual damage to property this way. Of course if illegal items were found the policy would be apt to exlude any payment
Undoubtedly police seek to use that tactic when they can.
But the warrant must be supported by probable cause, sworn out before a neutral and detached magistrate. So if the search is for stolen full-auto AK-47s, the police can’t add a line in the warrant that says, “Oh, and, uh, drugs, too!” without detailing facts that give rise to probable cause to believe that the drugs will be found in the area to be searched.
Since we’re asking questions based upon TV show police tactics, may I add one I’ve always wondered? You always see them walking up to the door, busting in and handing the warrent to the person while they immediatly start tearing the place up looking for…whatever. In real life, do they have to wait for you to…ya know…read the damn thing before they start looking? I’d think you’d have time to at least understand what they’re looking for so you know what they can and can’t do.
Especially in serving warrents related to drugs, it’s S.O.P. to secure the premises- make sure no one in a back room is going to jump out with a gun, no one’s running to the toilet to flush their stash, etc.
