Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Law enforcement...

Okay... I'm just trying to figure out some details of law enforcement. For instance, if the police had reason to believe that illegal activity was taking place at a certain time, but on private property, what would they need in order to barge on in there and stop it? A warrant? Could they even stop it on the property, or would they have to wait until those involved left the property?

If someone could help me out, that'd be great! Thanks guys.

~Anna.

They need one of a warrant, permission, or life threatening urgent.

The warrant is best if they need a solid case. Warrants are specific, if they have one for a stolen car they can only look where a car could be. Police try to always get warrants that have "stolen car or papers pertaining to" or some such phrase since papers could be anywhere.

Permission is anyone with the right to let them in/on the property. So getting a landlord, security guard or such to let you in will work.

Urgent is a person will die if they don't move now and still might make the legal case harder. So screams, shots, a witness that says someone is injured etc.

Not a lawyer but I do read a bit on the subject.

What about if a maid/housekeeper were to let them on the property? Would that be permission?

Thanks for your help!

~Anna.

If they want a case to stand up in court no a maid would not work. She has no legal standing involving the property. She can't give permission for a police office to enter a property. As for warrants. You have to show probable cause. Basically you don't give enough info in your question.

1. What kind of property is it. A private home, if so you can't ask them for access because obviously they are doing the criminal activity.

2. An office building, apartment building. Then the owner can give permission I believe. But then again there is an expectation of privacy so it might not stand up in court. Now if there is a vacation office or apartment the owner could let you use it to stake out the office/apartment in question. That would make it easier to get evidence of a crime.

3. A warrant require some kind of evidence to back it up. Like pictures of know drug dealers and junkies going in and out of a property. You can't go to a judge and say my informant says there is going to be a crime at such and such place and get a warrant unless you have prior acts etc to back it up. Best to check state laws on this.

I know there are very specific requirments for warrants because the Constitution protects against unlaw arrest, search and seizure. So it sounds like basically from your question all they have is an informants say so. All they could do would be to stake out the place. Like I said above depending on the place depends on what they can do. Like a store, they can go to the manager and arrange to have some cops in there undercover as clerks and customers.

Thanks very much, kmar. I appreciate you providing so much information.

This will help me a lot - I didn't want to get things wrong, but I know pretty much zilch about law enforcement.

~Anna.

I don't mean to pick nits where there are none, but if you're dealing with legal matters you have to remember that there are two kinds of law involved, the actual statute and case law. Statute is what the legislature passed and what the governor (or president) signed into law, and that's the starting point for any enforcement action. Case law is how that law has been enforced and interpreted by the courts over the time it has been in force.

For example, New York has much more case law on pursuit of a fleeing suspect or vehicle chases than, say, Wyoming. There are more court rulings to use as either challenges to or support for any police action. But as long as your characters stay within the actual statutes of our ver real New York, you can pretty much make up the case law to read however you want it to, as long as you don't go overboard.

Even more fun, Federal law doesn't cover all situations that state law does (for example, there is no Federal law against murder), but Federal statute and case law will overrule state law if there's a conflict. And, generally speaking, the rules of evidence are a bit looser in Federal court than in state court. A drug smuggler whose evidence might be tossed by a state judge might just as easily find that evidence admitted in his Federal trial.

Generally speaking, this type of evidence must also have currency. The photographs of these people doing illegal things would have to be recent.

The process for obtaining a search warrant involves typing up an affidavit, which explains in detail why you think there's probable cause to enter the property in which the crime is supposedly being committed. The affidavit usually includes a list of evidence of the crime being committed, which might include statements provided by a confidential informant, and all the steps taken to find evidence of the crime, such as searching through trash and finding receipts, doing an undercover buy, what have you. The affidavit will also usually contain the personal qualifications of the person submitting the affidavit that show why the person has the ability to make distinctions about why something might be evidence of a crime.

Whether you get granted a search warrant from the affidavit really depends on how solid your evidence is, and what state you're in. Some states are a bit more lenient with PC than others.

This is from a federal perspective, mind you.