When can the police legally search my premises?

If you give police the permission to search your premises, then this can happen at any time. Section 8 to 18 of PACE, 1984, gives the police statutory protection to enter and search your premises for evidence. These powers can be put into practise with or without a search warrant.

Searching a premises with a warrant

If the police wish to obtain a warrant to search premises, they are to apply to the Magistrates court. The Magistrates court is likely to grant a search warrant if they believe that the police have reasonable grounds to suspect that an indictable offence has been committed , and that the premises needing to be searched may contain evidence or materials that will be of beneficial importance to a trial, if the case should go this far. The courts will also investigate whether a search of the premises in question would be impossible without the granting of such a warrant.  

A search may be impossible without a search warrant if any of the following occur: 

• Entry into the premises in order to conduct the search would not be given by the owner
• It is not possible to communicate with the person in ownership or occupation of the premises

, or,

• The reason for conducting the search would be severely harmed and interfered with if the search is not conducted immediately without delay.  

If the Magistrates court were to grant a search warrant, the police may be allowed entry to: 

• An identified premise
• Any premises occupied or owned by the person named on the search warrant
• One premises on a number of occasions as stated in the search warrant, or,
• Unlimited entries into the same premises.  

Magistrates very rarely refuse to grant a search warrant, if a certain magistrate is known for refusing applications, the police will get around this obstruction by basically applying to a different magistrates court for application.

Once a warrant has been granted

Once the Magistrates court has passed a search warrant application, the police will have three months to carry out the search. The search must be carried out at a reasonable hour, unless the police believe this would affect the efficiency of the search operation.  

When a police officer attends a search, he must provide his identification and a copy of the search warrant so that the suspect knows what is going on. If it is impossible or impractical to do so immediately at the start of the search, they must do so at the most convenient and appropriate time.  

The police officer is to give the suspect a copy of their powers to stop and search, which will also contain the rights of the suspect to claim any compensation or rights to damages.

Search without a warrant

Section 17 of PACE allows the police to enter and search a premises in order to carry out an arrest warrant. This section also gives police the powers to enter and search a premise in order to catch a person unlawfully at large, or to protect the public from injury or harm at large. 

Section 18 of PACE states that the police have the right to search premise directly linked to a suspect that has been arrested of an indictable offence. They can exercise this right if they reasonable believe it is a necessary step to obtain evidence contained within the premises.  

Section 32 of PACE states that when a person is arrested for an indictable offence, the police have the right to search the premises they found the suspect in immediately prior to the arrest taking place. The police can exercise this power if the police constable reasonably believes the premises may contain evidence linked to the offence in question.  

Code B states that all searches of premises should be carried out at a reasonable hour (where possible), that only reasonable force is to be used when necessary and the police officers conducting the search should give consideration to the privacy of the premises occupier.  

Under section 19 of PACE, once a police offer has entered the premises they may search and retain any information or evidence that is linked with the offence in question.

Surveillance

Surveillance operations may include the following operations: 

• Placing bugs on private property
• Intercepting communications such as telephone calls
• Undercover police officers  

The legislation that now governs such police surveillance operations includes the Police Act 1997 and the Investigatory powers Act 2000.