If the Police have a Search Warrant for your HOME, can they also search YOU?

This week’s blog post addresses that headline question: and the answer is “probably not”.

Read on to find out more, in the circumstances of a case involving Humberside Police and a couple who maintain that they were the victims of malicious allegations of drug-dealing.

Content Authenticity Statement

100% of this week’s blog post was generated by me, the human.

Humberside Police Execute a Drugs Search Warrant

My clients’ Claire and David reside in East Yorkshire and unbeknownst to them, Humberside Police applied for, and obtained, a warrant to search their home pursuant to Section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, after allegations of drug- dealing from the premises were received.

One afternoon a few days later, the Police arrived at my clients’ house to execute the warrant. Claire was out shopping; David was in the back garden, in the middle of a telephone call with his daughter.

To David’s shock, a number of officers suddenly entered the garden and asked him to confirm his identity and the address, which he did. The officers then immediately handcuffed and detained him, with his hands to his rear.

A number of officers, including PC Calvert (a female officer), then entered the premises, while other officers kept David detained in handcuffs in the back garden.

PC Calvert then returned outside and informed David that there was a warrant for the address to search for drugs and asked:

“To save us the time, are we going to find anything in there, and if so, where will we find it?”

At this point David ‘confessed’ that he did indeed have a single joint of cannabis (nothing more) for his personal use, in a tub by his bedside.

The Police went upstairs and retrieved this and, for the avoidance of doubt, after a thorough search of the premises found no other illicit material whatsoever – no evidence of drug-dealing or drug-paraphernalia.

From a Search of the House to a Police Strip Search

However, it was not only the property which the Police searched: David was led inside, and his handcuffs were removed – but only, it transpired, so that he could comply with the officers’ subsequent instructions, which were for him to strip naked (or else force would be used against him).

David, in fear that force would be used if he did not comply, removed his t-shirt, trousers, shoes and socks and boxer shorts. When he was naked, the officers told him to squat; David complied. The officers then inspected the area of his genitals.

It does not take much imagination to understand how embarrassed, humiliated and degraded David felt by this.

Claire Is Also Subjected to an Intimate Strip Search

Unfortunately, the family’s degradation did not stop there, because at this point, David’s partner Claire returned home.

Claire was initially detained by the officers in the front garden, whilst they concluded their search of the house, but was then ‘invited’ inside by PC Calvert and also required to submit to a strip-search.

Claire had to remove her outer clothing, ‘flip’ her bra up for the officer to inspect her breasts, and then to also remove her shoes and underwear and to squat down so that the officer could inspect her genitals.

As with David, Claire was not physically touched during this process, but it was nevertheless a gross and intimate invasion of her privacy and hugely distressing, although she strove to remain calm and to preserve what shreds of dignity had been left to her by these occupiers of her home.

It was only after these two negative strip searches of my clients that the assembled Police Officers finally left the premises – and set about distributing notices to neighbouring properties boasting of their execution of the “drugs” warrant, without admitting that they had found nothing but a “spliff.”

The only action subsequently taken by the Police against either of my clients was a “cannabis warning” issued to David, which he signed.

Picture of letters from Humberside Police.

Can the Police Strip Search You When Executing a Search Warrant?

The action which Claire and David then wanted to take against Humberside Police was, however, an entirely different matter.

What Powers Do the Police Have Under a Misuse of Drugs Act Search Warrant?

When the couple approached me for expert legal advice on this matter, I was able to confirm that the Police had no power under the Warrant to search them – the warrant was specifically in relation to property, not people.

Section 23(3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act provides as follows –

“If a justice of the peace (or in Scotland a justice of the peace, a magistrate or a sheriff) is satisfied by information on oath that there is reasonable ground for suspecting—

(a)that any controlled drugs are, in contravention of this Act or of any regulations [or orders] made thereunder, in the possession of a person on any premises; or

(b)that a document directly or indirectly relating to, or connected with, a transaction or dealing which was, or an intended transaction or dealing which would if carried out be, an offence under this Act, or in the case of a transaction or dealing carried out or intended to be carried out in a place outside the United Kingdom, an offence against the provisions of a corresponding law in force in that place, is in the possession of a person on any premises,

he may grant a warrant authorising any constable … at any time or times within one month from the date of the warrant, to enter, if need be by force, the premises named in the warrant, and to search the premises and any persons found therein and, if there is reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence under this Act has been committed in relation to any controlled drugs found on the premises or in the possession of any such persons, or that a document so found is such a document as is mentioned in paragraph (b) above, to seize and detain those drugs or that document, as the case may be.”

PACE Code A and the Police Power to Search People on the Premises

This legislation has to then be considered through the lens of the Police Codes of Practice, set down as ancillary laws to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, specifically Code A para 2.27 (b)  which specifically states that –

“The following powers to search premises also authorise the search of a person, not under arrest, who is found on the premises during the course of the search.. under a warrant issued under section 23 (3) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to search premises for drugs or documents but only if the warrant specifically authorises the search of persons found on the premises”. 

When Can the Police Lawfully Carry Out a Strip Search?

Yet further, para 3.7 of Code A provides that –

“Searches involving exposure of intimate parts of the body must not be conducted as a routine extension of a less thorough search, simply because nothing is found in the course of the initial search…”

In other words, the severe degree of personal intrusion that a strip search entails must be justified by a reasonable suspicion of “intimately concealed items” – which no officer here ever articulated any grounds or basis for believing my clients had upon them. Objectively considered, the suggestion that the couple were hiding drugs on their bodies seems ridiculous – David had been surprised whilst standing in his garden on the phone, and immediately handcuffed, whilst Claire had just returned from a shopping trip. Any such suspicion could not be based merely on the fact that the search warrant had been issued for the house: there had to be something more, in the actual facts of the encounter to base it upon – and here there simply wasn’t.

Why These Police Strip Searches Were Unlawful

Applying these strict rules of Code A to the circumstances of Claire and David’s case, it was clear to me that the Humberside Police Officers had, even if not committing trespass to land, had certainly committed trespass to my clients’ persons, by subjecting them to the strip- searches, and false imprisonment by detaining them whilst they did so.  The court warrant which the Police were acting under did not authorise the search of persons on the premises – and even if it had, a “strip search” is never something which can be undertaken on a speculative basis and the officers involved had no new information or grounds to justify them taking this draconian step.

Strip Searches, Trespass to the Person and False Imprisonment

A “strip search” is extremely adjacent to a sexual assault, and should never be used as crassly and casually as it was by the officers in this case.

Over £12,000 Compensation for Unlawful Police Strip Searches

Even more so than their homes, Englishmen’s (and women’s) bodies are their castles, and I was happy to take Claire and David’s cases on a “no win, no fee” basis and to sue the Chief Constable of Humberside, after he maintained that his officers had done nothing wrong. As the court proceedings progressed, the Police increased their offers of settlement from initial amounts of only £500 for each of my clients, until eventually total damages of over £12,000 were agreed, plus legal costs, shortly before trial.

Claims Against the Police for Unlawful Searches and Search Warrants

Read here examples of my considerable expertise in this area, and the significant awards of damages I have won for my clients in vindication of their “home rights”, even when the Police come armed with a Court Warrant –

My clients’ names have been changed. 

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Contact the Expert Police Misconduct Solicitor

Iain Gould is a solicitor specialising in complaints, claims and civil actions against the Police. With over 30 years of experience and a national reputation, he has successfully sued all 43 police forces in England and Wales challenging abuse of power and securing rightful compensation

Author: iaingould

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