Timeline for Do police have powers that civilians don't?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 12, 2021 at 7:43 | comment | added | gnasher729 | @Justaguy My example came up from a UK court case: The police suspected that an officer on sick leave wasn't actually sick but just tried to get a free paid holiday. So they observed him and found he was making up his illness. Things went to court. And the judge decided that the police was NOT allowed to observe a random person like that. (But in this case they acted not as police but as employer, and the employer can do this, even if the employer is the police force, so what they did was legal in this exceptional case). | |
| May 11, 2021 at 18:10 | history | edited | user35069 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 7 characters in body; edited tags; edited title
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| Jul 9, 2020 at 20:12 | comment | added | Just a guy | @gnasher729 I take your point, but this might not be the best example. In general, the police only need a warrant to look at your stuff if it is reasonable for you to expect that stuff to be private. So, for example, they could park a car in front of your house and watch you for no particular reason. Or they could take a coffee cup you threw into a trash can at Starbucks and use it to get your DNA. (In fact, in Greenwood v. California, the Court said police could even dig around in your garbage can looking for evidence!) | |
| Jul 8, 2020 at 22:59 | comment | added | gnasher729 | Interestingly, citizens can also do things that police are not allowed to do. Like your nosy neighbour looking out of the window all the time and checking what you're doing, without any good reason. | |
| Jul 8, 2020 at 4:18 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jul 23, 2020 at 3:07 | |||||
| Jul 8, 2020 at 4:03 | history | edited | Just a guy | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Edited so that it asks a question by removing sentences that assert an answer
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| Jul 8, 2020 at 4:02 | answer | added | Dale M♦ | timeline score: 5 | |
| Jul 8, 2020 at 3:59 | comment | added | user4657 | False equivalences abound here. Citizens can only detain others for a very limited time under very limited circumstances. Civilian court orders are not possible at all for things the police routinely do (and that's basically what warrants are, in some respects). There are numerous other things police can do that would be illegal or illegitimate for civilians outside of the judicial process to even try, let alone have any legal bearing. | |
| Jul 8, 2020 at 2:55 | history | asked | user31975 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |