Putting all his body weight behind what is already a fairly hefty chunk of steel, the officer swings the ram into the door. The lock claws at the door frame as it gives way in a shower of splinters. The ram is then cast aside and officers begin to flood the premises.
The first thing that officers will be looking to do once inside is to locate all of the persons within and ensure that they have no opportunity to destroy evidence. Each room will be searched for occupants, including cupboards and under beds, and all those found will be gathered and secured in one area.
Probably still a little shell shocked from their unexpected wake up call the officer in charge of the warrant will explain to the occupants why the warrant is being executed and give them a chance to examine a copy of the warrant itself. A search book will then be started listing where the warrant is taking place, who is present and what, if anything, has been recovered.
With the occupants of the premises sat in one place the search can begin to earnest. Each room will be thoroughly and methodically sifted through with anything that may be linked to an offence likely to be seized as evidence. The warrant specifies what we are able to search for and are searching techniques need to be proportionate to what we’re looking for. A warrant authorising us to search for a stolen 52″ flat screen television, as an example, would mean that we couldn’t search kitchen draws as it’s rather unlikely that we’d find the television inside.
When we find something of interest that we’re going to seize we make a note of where it was found, along with the time, and enter this information into the search book.
Having finished our search we’ll then transport any arrested suspects back to the police station taking with us our seized property. The prisoners will be booked on in the cells whilst other officers will begin the process of booking their recovered evidence into the property store and writing their production statements. This task finished we can then evaluate any useful intelligence that we’ve gained from the raid and begin dealing with the prisoners themselves.
Drugs warrants are a great way for us to tackle the wider issues caused by drug abuse and provide a visible sign to the public that we are taking action to clamp down on the dealers. In addition they have a habit of making other criminals in the area quite edgy about continuing their dodgy operations. Will I be next they begin to wonder? Should they persist to flout the law, the answer is a very loud yes.
0 Responses to “Limehouse police knocking at my door, twelve black boots on my bedroom floor… (Part two of two)”