From the city of Exeter, great moments in community outreach: “police were under fire today after admitting they had been sneaking into people’s homes through open doors and windows and gathering up their valuables into ‘swag’ bags.” The idea was to prod careless owners into improving their security efforts, but “not all residents were happy and a criminal lawyer suggested that the police may have been guilty of trespass.” [The Guardian] Earlier, and nearly as outrageous: Sept. 2 (cops in London borough “remove valuables from unlocked cars to teach the owners about safety”). More: Dueling Barstools on the differences between U.K. and U.S. law, constitutional and otherwise, on this sort of thing.
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Police entering without a valid search warrant? Will the resulting lawsuits provide the homeowners with all new valuables? If they find drugs or other evidence of crimes, can they use this information? Will they search desks and copy or take documents? Will they take or search laptops, cell phones, pda’s or other devices likely to contain personal information? If the homeowner is actually home and defends himself against the “criminals” that broke in, who is liable for injuries on either side? This whole concept has FAIL written all over it.
It’s in the UK. The homeowner has no right to defend themselves. Hence the stories you see from the UK where the homeowners that do defend themselves receive longer prison sentences than those that commit burglaries. Assuming they are even arrested in the first place and not just given a ‘caution’.
Are sure these cops did not come from Philly or Chicago or any other big US city.
This whole concept has FAIL written all over it.
I hate to say it, but so does England.
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