Police broke into my home - any advice?

[NA1988]

Hello, I'm uncertain if this is the appropriate platform for seeking advice, but I would appreciate any guidance you can offer.
During the early hours of the morning, the police forcefully entered my home and apprehended my husband. To provide a brief overview, around 5 am, a group of 10-15 officers forcefully entered my residence, breaking down two doors in the process. The entire incident unfolded in the presence of me and our four children, making it an extremely traumatic experience. Following the entry, my husband was arrested upstairs and brought downstairs (in handcuffs). we were detain upstairs. Downstairs my husband was asked his name and to confirm our address. It was at this point that the officers realized they had mistakenly targeted the wrong address. Subsequently, my husband was uncuffed, and the entire team of officers vacated our premises. The damaged doors were boarded up, and we were advised to file a claim. While we have received payment for the doors, we are now seeking further redress for the trespass, violation of privacy, arrest/detainment, trauma. Our youngest child is 8 years old, and our eldest is 14. I would like to inquire about what aspects I can seek compensation for and at what estimated value.

I will be consulting a solicitor, however haven't had good experience in the past, so if I can I will handle the claim myself.

This happened in West Midlands UK

Thank you

I’d sue the shit out of them.

Gosh OP that’s horrible. I never forget the day my dad was arrested, totally out of the blue, a Saturday morning and I answered the door and I remember them asking if my dad was in. He was in bed and I was up watching daytime TV. It was just horrible, I remember crying at the window as I’d gone to get dressed as I wanted to go with him. I think I was maybe 8. Sadly it wasn’t a mistaken identity (nothing major but he was guilty of a crime). You will need to seek legal advice on this, I’d imagine you’d be entitled to some compensation for but certainly not a massive amour

Dont they use your name when they formally arrest you handcuffs etc? didnt your husband say anything? it seems very odd.

Definitely get a solicitor and don't attempt to deal with the claim yourself. They will get the relevant disclosure and assess a wrongful arrest/false imprisonment claim etc plus can get medical reports in respect of psychiatric injury.

OP, you should go to the police station and report the matter as a crime (not a complaint). They did not have a warrant to do what they did as that would have been for the correct house, the officers involved are at least guilty of criminal damage and false arrest.

They will have to give you a crime number, and they can't say they havn't got any leads!!

Police officers are not above or exempt from the law, if I wen't and kicked my neighbours door in I'd be in court, so should they.

and lose.

OP, you should go to the police station and report the matter as a crime (not a complaint). They did not have a warrant to do what they did as that would have been for the correct house, the officers involved are at least guilty of criminal damage and false arrest.

The presumption you need to overturn is that they were acting in good faith

The Op is in England. Where none of that happens.

This, 1,000%.

How could it possibly be good faith if they have deliberately ignored simple, basic procedures that a 6yo child would know in order to find the correct address for which they had a warrant?

A dozen or so police officers and not one them thought to look at the number on the door, to check it was the right address that they were breaking into?

Everybody knows that tech such as Google Maps and satnavs are very helpful guides, but not infallible, and not a complete replacement for basic human common sense.

If somebody assaulted you in the street and ran off, and then you found somebody else who, for all you know, just might have been your assailant and punched them in 'retaliation', would that be considered in good faith? Of course not.

@ProfessorSlocombe is explaining the legal threshold that the OP will need to meet - which is presumably the kind of advice the OP is after, given that she posted in Legal Matters.

Explaining the law is not the same as saying that you think the law is correct, or advocating for one side of the other. If you lack the subtlety of mind to understand that, maybe stick to AIBU?

Did you seek and receive financial compo from the apartheid*
(or democratic*) SA gov?

*take your pick.

Fair enough, then, that's me told.

I may have misconstrued, but ProfessorSlocombe's comments seemed to me to be abrupt and somewhat lacking in sympathy for OP's entirely unavoidable trauma inflicted on innocent people through (what seems obviously to me, but I'm sure I'd be told that I'm very much incorrect) gross incompetence.

If basic common sense is deliberately excluded from even being considered as a factor in all legal processes in the country, I guess the law is just not intended to protect ordinary people.

I'll leave it to the smart people - such as the dozen or so Chief Wiggumses who traumatised OP and their lawyers - who clearly know much better than the rest of us ordinary fools what the law should be good for.

It was an error. It's nice to know police are being proactive in cases. So often they seem to be hindered by red tape, funding and a demanding public. Hope the other chap was at home when they raided!

If course wrongful arrest is a thing in the UK. People claim for it all the time

I would go in two ways

• ask for support from victims services. You should be able to find who on the west midlands PCC website. I think it might be victim support. 101 will get you there too
• put in a claim to force solicitor. It might be better to go in with a solicitor and there are plenty who will do this. Again send it to the opcc and it will get there - email address is on their website. Opcc@

Although never needed a solicitor for the same reason as you and never used ian I have used dpp law several times now and everything I'm blown away by how amazing they are, the whole firm!..... apart from ian like I said but I'm sure it carries through them all used 3 different solicitors over the years.

It's a legal matters forum. People post for legal advice, not "unMumsnetty hugs" guff.

You still seem to be conflating someone describing the law with someone taking sides. Would you prefer that no one actually told the OP what she needs to do to succeed in a claim?

It's not criminal damage because there was no criminal intent: the police did not intend to kick down the door of the wrong person. An analogy would be you kicking your neighbour's door down because you believed their house was on fire. Your NDN might want you to pay for the door, but you are not going to get charged with criminal damage if acting in good faith.

The police should pay up for the physical damage to the OP's house without needing a solicitor to get involved, but they often need chasing.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow if something is an accident it's still the responsibility of the perpetrators of the accident to make good. In this case that should include paying for all the counselling/therapy thetherapy the children in particular but all the family need to understand what the hell happened. This has completely fucked up their view of home being safe place. It's major and it is absolutely costs that need to be borne by the people who caused it

Where did I disagree with that?

There are two types of law: criminal law and civil law. It's through civil law that the OP might receive damages.

Saying that a crime has not taken place does not mean that there has not been a breach of civil law.

And, actually, I'm not saying that it's impossible a crime has taken place. I'm saying that it wasn't criminal damage to kick down the door, if the officers who did so were acting in good faith that the true suspect was inside.

You can commit crimes through negligence. It is possible that the police have been so negligent as to have committed a criminal act but, if so, it's highly unlikely that the negligence was by the people knocking the door down, who would have been acting in good faith on information supplied by others.

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06627/SN06627.pdf

Compensation for damage caused when effecting entry is unlikely to be appropriate if the search was lawful, and the force used can be shown to be reasonable

Yes, but the police would need to investigate the matter, and possibly bring charges, at great embarassment against officers - I have a feeling if presented with this scenario they would offer to cough up for the damages - which they are supposed to do anyway.

I would advise using legal representation.
Taking on the police as litigant-in-person is time consuming, stressful, and not without cost.

NA1988
Did the police arrange door repair or did you have to do it and claim on insurance or claim through them ?