police
Its interesting to see the different opinions and some of the lack of knowledge, some of the actual knowledge, and or the attempt by some to portray themselves as knowing all. Having been a police officer for over ten years, I do have a pretty good idea about what the law allows. So for those of you who are wondering, no police do not have carte blanche to enter any residence they feel like and unless there is an issue regarding human safety, ie domestic assault, home invasion, they require a warrant to enter your residence. Having said that the law does allow police to enter without warrant any dwelling, business or structure in the event that a 911 call has been made from that residence. This is to ensure the safety of anyone who may be in the residence. Forgive us if we ask to look around at such a call, this is because of the amount of persons who will (shock) lie to us. (For those of you who don't think we should enter after a 911 call, remember northern Alberta, where the lady called 911 about her ex husband trying to get in. Police did not respond because this was a regular occurrence at the residence, tragically her ex husband chose that night to kill her)If an officer shows up at your door and you invite him in, forgetting that you have a kilo of coke on the kitchen table, this then becomes an issue of plain view doctrine, allowing police to immediately arrest and seize the coke. Once they have completed those actions they are required to secure the residence and obtain a warrant to search the remainder of the house for further evidence. In regards to vehicles there is a lower expectation of privacy and the threshold allowing police to search is much lower. Incidental to lawful arrest, a police officer may search a person or a vehicle for the following three criteria, preservation of evidence, officer safety and the discoverance of evidence. So when a police officer pulls you over and you have just finished smoking a joint, based on his senses and his ability to articulate his experience in completing drug investigations, you may find yourself arrested. That officer can then search your vehicle without warrant for the three criteria listed above. A lot of times as police we receive information that we believe, (based on investigational experience) holds no merit. In such an instance and in the interest of saving time and money for the taxpayer, it is easier to confirm the suspicions by a simple knock on the door and requesting the information from the subject of complaint. This allows police to get on with real policing while completing due diligence for the public who may have called in the complaint. You will find that most police operate on the principal of respect given for respect received, unfortunately in todays society media has portrayed all police to be corrupt either through film, games or news. Often the news presented does not truly represent what has occurred and police are unable to correct due to ongoing investigation. When the opportunity does finally allow for correction, it has become old news and no longer worthy of reporting. Don't get me wrong there are bad police officers out there, when your police force has over 23000 police officers, then yes there will be bad apples. These bad apples usually land the police force in the spotlight. If a police officer is perhaps rude to you one day, keep in mind that it may be because he just had to notify a family that he just finished scrapping the remains of one of their loved ones off of the road after a horrific crash or that perhaps their loved ones have just been stabbed or raped and are in hospital waiting for family. It could be that he has just been in a fight with an infectious individual who may have bit or spit on him and now he is worried about having contracted hep c or hiv. Now he has to explain to his wife why he cannot have any close contact with her for a lengthy period of time. If you are worried about an officer having nothing better to do then enter your house to hassle you, keep in mind that for the average officer his workload far exceeds what he can hope to accomplish in a day, and he truly has better things to do than waste both his and your time. For those of you who have formed an opinion of police without truly experiencing what they go through on a daily basis, I suggest contacting your local agency and requesting to go on a ride along.(not all agencies allow ride alongs) For those of you who have been offended at one time or another by a police officer, I apologize to you on their behalf. Respectfully yours Cpl. E. REININK RCMP
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