This is a question prompted by an event in a role-playing game, but since I am asking about how things work in the “real world” I’m putting it here.
What exactly is allowed with a search warrant? If someone shows up at my front door and shows me a badge and a piece of paper they claim is a search warrant (I would have no idea what one really looks like) are they allowed to enter my house immediately without me questioning it? If I pull out my cell phone to try to call someone to determine if this is legitimate, are they allowed to grab my phone and immediately arrest me for “interfering with the execution of the warrant”?
While I am sure any number of abuses occur, I’m asking what the supposed procedure is. Can someone be arrested and/or shot because some authorities with a warrant show up and they make the mistake of trying to notify their boss that the cops are there?
Can someone fill me in on what the “actual” procedure is “supposed” to be? (Again, I’m sure abuses occur. I’m asking for what is supposed to happen.)
I think that in most jurisdictions you can call whomever you want as they ransack your house looking for whatever is in the search warrant. If you try to stop them they can restrain you so as to not interfere with their search, and I suppose, if things escalate they can arrest you, but they aren’t going to hang around and wait for your lawyer to show up, or allow you to potentially destroy evidence.
If it is a fake search warrant, I’m sure your attorney can get any evidence gathered thrown out. And then the cops who search would have to answer to a judge for faking a warrant and/or forging a judge’s signature. I’m sure those are crimes.
I know it isn’t exactly the best reference, but anyone who’s watched any of the Law & Orders will remember that there is also the ‘scope’ of the warrant. A search warrant can sometimes be for anything, anywhere on the property, but often it has restrictions to it. An item or list of items that they’re looking for, and a reasonable expectation of where they could be found. If they exceed these things anything they find may be inadmissible.
Under what sort of circumstances would a warrant be issued to search for anything that might be found on the property? Typically, warrants would have to specify what the police are looking for, and where they may look (within some resolution).
(Emphasis added.)
We had a thread on search warrants just recently. One point made was this: The police are only supposed to look in places where the item(s) being sought might reasonably be expected to be found. If, for example, they are looking for a stolen TV, they can’t look inside a jewelry box for it. But if they do notice a jewelry box and look inside, and find and seize an envelope full of meth or recognizably stolen jewelry (or possibly even if they find a TV in there), it would not be admissable in court because they shouldn’t have looked there.
Hang tight a moment, I’ll find that thread and post a link to it . . .
Pretty sure this is the thread I’m thinking of. It gets right to the point that I made above very early in the thread (like, in just the first 5 posts they’re already discussing this.)
I think that what the OP is asking is: suppose you suspect that these are not real cops with a real warrant. What are you entitled to do to force them to produce their bone fides? Suppose they refuse to show you that paper? All sorts of possibilities.
Ultimately, this is like the lawful order question. If they are police and it is a lawful warrant you must follow it. If it is not a lawful warrant you don’t and somehow magically you are expected to know which is which.
The police have no obligation to prove to your satisfaction that they are cops before executing a search warrant. Otherwise, you could escape the warrant by choosing not to believe they are cops. Local rules probably require police to identify themselves and to show you their badge or to wear it prominently where you can see it. If you want to confirm further that the person is a real police officer, you could try calling his or her station house and asking questions to seek confirmation. If you don’t interfere with their search, I can’t imagine the police would care about your phone call other than out of petty annoyance. The people at the station house might be willing to play along too. If not, too bad.
If they are criminals posing as police officers, they will do whatever is plan B in their criminal toolkit when you start to disbelieve them. Naturally, you should be very certain that the people serving a warrant in your home are not cops before you start to treat them like home invaders.
Modern society seems to think generally people wearing uniforms (“monkey suits”) are the peons, and the guys in business suits are the upper crust. It’s amazed me how few “cop shows” feature actual police in uniform rather than detectives dressed in almost business casual.
So that’s the question - if a guy in civilian clothes show up at your door, claims to be a cop, claims to have a warrant - how are you supposed to know? I note that frequently in L&O they have a uniformed policeman along for show, but does that always happen?
I recall several cases of no-knock warrants in the news that caused gunfights, because just yelling “police” will not automatically convince someone they are not being robbed.
I guess we could ask the same question about traffic stops. If the car is not identified as a police car, does not look like one, if an off-duty cop tries to pull rank and stop you - what are your rights?
Again, we’re back to the magical rule “you figure it out - but don’t guess wrong!!”.
If I pull out my cell phone to try to call someone to determine if this is legitimate, are they allowed to grab my phone and immediately arrest me for “interfering with the execution of the warrant”?
No, because you won’t be interfering, you’ll be standing off on your own, talking on your phone while they execute the warrant.
They don’t need your permission to come in and search the place. That’s why they have a warrant. If you try to say something like, “You can’t come in until I call my lawyer,” they will brush you aside and probably have an officer watch you to make sure you don’t interfere.
When guys with guns and badges show up at the door, you do what you’re told and you worry about the niceties of it later. They will hand you a copy of the search warrant and you will give it to your lawyer at some later time and he will determine if the whole thing went down legally.
What you do at the time the warrant is being executed is keep your mouth shut and let them do their thing.
I can’t speak to all jurisdictions, but in Florida there are laws that prescribe how a search warrant can be executed.
For one, it must be served by the officer who obtained the warrant (although he or she is allowed to have back up with them).
When serving the warrant, the officer is required to give a copy of the warrant to the occupant, and is required to give an inventory list to the occupant when they take stuff.
They can serve it at night, or on Sunday, but that requires authorization from the judge issuing the warrant.
Once the warrant is issued and is being served, the officers have wide latitude in making the search, but they first need to announce what right they have to make a search.
Refusing to cooperate with the search is a crime
But obtaining a search warrant under false pretenses is also a crime, as is exceeding the scope of a lawful warrant.
And, if property is improperly obtained, it can be returned, but only by court order (although I didn’t quote the lists of exceptions and nuances; basically, gambling equipment, intoxicating liquors, and firearms are presumed to be improperly held, and it is on the person seeking their return to show that they are proper)
…
TL/DR
If a cop shows up to execute a search warrant, you are entitled to a copy of the warrant and you are entitled to an inventory list of the stuff that is taken. But you can’t interfere. If you wish to fight the taking of your stuff, you need to go to court. If the court finds that the search warrant was obtained maliciously, or the cop exceeded their authority, they can get into trouble. And if the stuff has nothing to do with the crime they are investigating, or is not itself contraband, you can get it returned.
And if the name & address is wrong on the warrant, they really just did go to the wrong address and you notice it right off, what luck would you have in stopping them? They refuse to acknowledge that. You have the means to stop them violently. Do you have any legal standing to stop them?
The OP’s question about police identification arises perhaps more troublingly on the road. Deserted highway, and the unmarked car behind you begins flashing a red light on the dashboard – do you pull over?
Since I have no obligation to make things easier for the police or assist, if in the unlikely event a single or pair of plain clothes men claiming to be police show up at my door at 1am waving a piece of paper they claim is a warrant I’d just not open the door but instead call 911 to report it, either real cops will shortly arrive or it is confirmed it is indeed police outside.
They are free in the meantime to try to gain entry if they can, this is why strong doors and locks and full burglar bars are a good thing.
Also as a rule for my whole life I do not answer the door if I don’t know who is outside no matter the time of day or night.