Reasonable force and premises search Flashcards
What is reasonable force?
It will sometimes be the case that your entrance to a premises is obstructed, either circumstantially (e.g. a piece of furniture is blocking it or there is no one to answer a door) or deliberately (someone refuses you entry).
Have the option to use reasonable force in order to allow you to fulfil your duties.
Every effort should be made to contact and obtain consent from someone who can give it before forcing entry, unless this may put someone in danger or frustrate the purpose of the search in some way.
Any force used must be reasonable, which means that you should only use the amount of force that is ‘necessary’ in the circumstances. Once the reason for force being necessary has ended, the use of force must also end.
In the context of entering and searching premises, the following would be examples of ‘force’ which will be justified in the circumstances if no more force than necessary is used:
Pushing past someone who is blocking entry into premises.
Using bodily weight to force open a locked door.
Shouting loud verbal commands on entry to control the occupants.
Using your taser, incapacitant spray or baton to subdue an occupant.
Using specialist equipment to open on doors, windows, safes, locked metal cabinets which are locked, and no keys are available.
Specialist officers using their specific training and equipment (eg firearms, dogs) to control occupants.
The occasions when force may be necessary are:
The premises are unoccupied.
The owner or occupier is known to be absent and it is not possible to contact them to grant access.
The occupier, or other person entitled to grant access, refuses to do so.
The element of surprise is necessary to reduce the risk of injury to someone (including police) who may be put in danger if you alert the occupants.
Evidence may be lost or the operation frustrated in some other way if entry is delayed or the occupants are alerted.
There is known intelligence that the premises, or persons likely to be on the premises, will present a risk to officers.
Legal Framework
In the context of this lesson there are 3 main sources that provide officers with powers to use reasonable force if necessary.
- Sec 117 Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 says:
Where any provision of this Act:
(a) confers a power on a constable; and
(b) does not provide that the power may only be exercised with the consent of some person, other than a police officer,
the officer may use reasonable force, if necessary, in the exercise of the power.
This means that if you are lawfully engaged in any of the powers given to you by PACE (e.g. entering a house to arrest someone wanted on warrant – Sec 17, or searching a house of someone under arrest for evidence an indictable offence – Sec 18) and it is necessary to use force (e.g. because the person is not complying or entry is refused) then you may use force as long as it is no more than is necessary in the circumstances.
- Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act 1967 says:
“A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large”.
This is a wider use of force and is not restricted to powers under PACE. A person includes a police officer.
- 117 PACE and Sec 3 Criminal Law Act will be covered in more detail in a separate lesson.
Search warrants
When executing a search warrant, the authority to use reasonable force if necessary may come from the relevant statute under which the warrant was granted (E.g. Sec 23 Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 says – a justice may grant a warrant authorising any constable, to enter, if need be by force…).
Searching the premises when a person has been arrested
A search under s 32 of the PACE Act 1984 is conducted following the arrest of an individual for an indictable offence.
It allows an officer to search the premises where the person was located when arrested and/ or immediately after the arrest (should have direct connection with individual).
They can also be searched under s 32.
Searching other premises after a person has been arrested
May be necessary to carry out searches at other location e.g home or work address.
This type of search is carried out under s 18 of the PACE Act 1984.
Authority from inspector is required.
Details of the grounds and the evidence sought should be recorded on the notice, the custody record and the search record, and in the officers PNB.
S 18 of the PACE Act 1984.
Useful why?
May be evidence relation to offence hidden elsewhere.
Allows intelligence to be gathered and discover further crimes.
S 18 of the PACE Act 1984.
There must be reasonable grounds for suspecting that:
- The person has access to and used the location; and
- There is evidence on the premises that relates to either the offence in question, a similar offence, or to some other related indictable offence.
S 18 of the PACE Act 1984
Anything found during a search can be
… seized (s 18(1)), and retained (s 18(2)) for long as necessary (s 22 of the PACE Act 1984).
S 18 of the PACE Act 1984 states…
a police officer may enter and search any premises occupied or controlled by a person under arrest for an indictable offence.
