any recourse for damage caused by police?
Contractor · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2014 · 885 posts · 359 votes
So the situation:
The local police executed a search warrant in one of my rentals. The broke the door frame and damaged the exterior of a steel room with a ram. They then proceded to look for someone who 1) is not my tenant 2) was not there.
Is there any possibility that they will be paying for the necessary repairs?
Really just don't have any experience in this area, thanks!
@Account Closed
To clarify, all described damage was to a single door (and the frame of said door).
What if the tenant is asleep, or not home?
There are innumerable examples of police:
1) going to the wrong house
2) using excessive force and/or poor judgment
either of these alone is enough to make me want to explore my options. Police are just people, and people make mistakes.
Well, I guess all that matters is what happened in this case. Were your tenants asleep? Were they not home?
I'm just asking what I think is an obvious question. And what the city attorney will ask, too. But, I think you should be prepared for the possibility that the reason the door was smashed in, was because the tenants refused to open it. And if that's the case, just be ready for that argument from the city attorney when you go after the city for damages.
Come on now, this is just silly. Do you expect your insurance company to tell you they won't pay for your burned down house because you should have put the fire out? First of all the burden is not on the private citizen, the police can knock, break down your door, arrest you, and generally whatever else they want to do, this doesn't make it legal or in any way acceptable, and you should pursue damages in the case that they police are at fault.
If the police had a warrant for someone at your address, they would have to have some sort of documentation or reasonable probable cause for a judge to issue a search warrant, so even if the warrant is effectually appropriate, the police may have acted inappropriately or even with negligence when preparing the request for a warrant (i.e if they got the wrong address or falsified evidence to obtain the warrant). In which case you would have not only claim to property damages but also several avenues of personal damage (i.e illegal seach, false charges, false arrest, possibly harassment and/or defamation of character.)
It's no more the tenants fault then if the property was vandalized or broken into, they have no control over the police, and they had done nothing to bring the police to the property. It sucks for the owner for sure, but the next time you complain about how unfair tenant/landlord laws are remember that it's because of people charging tenants for these kinds of things that forced laws favoring the tenants on the books.
Just my 2 cents
Adam
if you get the run around, call your local newspaper to get a story in the paper about the police doing damage and city hall not willing to be accountable...just my opinion !
@Account Closed
Well I live in Las Vegas, which if you're familiar with LVMPD is reason enough to assume the police were at fault, haha.
I know what you're saying about jumping to conclusions, I think most of us assumed that the tenants were not engaged in illegal activity or otherwise caused the police to show up because of what the OP said:
"proceded to look for someone who 1) is not my tenant 2) was not there."
He didn't explicitly say the tenants had nothing to do with the matter, but the inference was that they were generally not at fault for bringing the authorities to the property.
Adam
Yeah, but he also made that pesky mention of a "guest." The one who jumped out the window, maybe?
And see, even with that statement alone, my very first thought was, "Why didn't the tenant just open the door?" Who cares who they're looking for?
Just goes to show people think differently. Anyway, don't want to derail the thread with a pro-cop, anti-cop thing.
And can't you find tenants who don't know criminals the cops are looking for? Maybe that's the bottom line here. If you want to rent in a crime zone, expect some damage.
I did miss the reference to the "guest" in the subsequent post, and that does seem a little sketchy now that you point it out.
But...
Why didn't the tenant open the door? There's a ton of answers, probably the most compelling to me is that you're under no legal obligation to open the door. If the police have a search warrant for your house, then they have the legal authority to enter the premises, often by force, but lets look at a couple common sense facts:
Police are not likely to break down your door, unless they believe you may 1) have weapons 2) be a flight risk wanted on fairly serious charges 3) be hiding and have made attempts to contact you at the residence at least once before.
Generally in the case of non-violent or non serious offenders, the police would generally knock and ask to talk to you. They won't bash down your door because you have a bench warrant for unpaid speeding tickets. Essentially what I'm saying is if the cops are at your door in swat gear with a battering ram, its probably pretty serious, and I don't know if you have ever seen a knock and enter executed, but the knock is more of an announcement that the door is about to be smashed in than a request to open the door. The whole point is to take the people inside by surprise, and not give them the chance to get rid of evidence, not to break down the door because the person inside refuses to open it.
Again, if you have never had a bad experience with police then that is awesome, but I assure you many of us out there have had very bad experiences with law enforcement in many situations and circumstances.
Besides any attorney will tell you that talking to any law enforcement before you are required to with an attorney present can only do harm, it NEVER helps.
Adam
So the situation:
The local police executed a search warrant in one of my rentals. The broke the door frame and damaged the exterior of a steel room with a ram. They then proceded to look for someone who 1) is not my tenant 2) was not there.
Is there any possibility that they will be paying for the necessary repairs?
Really just don't have any experience in this area, thanks!
Sorry for your problems...but I must say this is what keeps this business interesting. Just when you thought everything was ok......KABOOM! Been there...done that:) BTW--their attitude is admit nothing, demand proof, deny everything. Pretty bad when you can't trust your own government!
@Jeremy Pace, sorry we were posting at the same time. I don't expect to ever have bad feelings with any cops, because I don't put myself in situations where I have to be afraid of them.
Heck, I was even nice to the last cop who gave me a traffic ticket - I deserved it.
I'm glad the cops are out there looking for bad guys. Anyway, nuff said.
Sue:
Sometimes, you can be an outstanding citizen, minding your own business, not putting yourself in a situation where you [should] have to be afraid of [the police]. However, you may also look a little different than the everyday Jane Q Public and, solely as a consequence of who you are, can received unmerited police attention.
And, sometimes the police simply get the wrong person or address ... humans are like that.
if you get the run around, call your local newspaper to get a story in the paper about the police doing damage and city hall not willing to be accountable...just my opinion !
Right, like any newspaper is going to print that. They don't even always print stories when the cops kill unarmed people. Of course, in the papers' defense this is becoming fairly common.
too soooooon!