Police involvement - need info on freedom of information act please.

[wedidntdoit]

OK, So we're going about our business as usual last nite, when I turn around and find a 6 ft policeman in my kitchen doorway!
He then informs me he has a warrant to search my house for 'controled substances' and asks DH to turn his pockets out, and sign a consent form, which he does.
Then asks me to accompany them upstairs while they start the search, which I do.

They're all very polite about it, but I'm stood wondering WTF going on?

After (of course) not finding anything, they leave, and I look at the warrant, which says they are looking for bloody COCAINE!!!!!

I couldnt believe it, we have NEVER done cocaine, let alone had any in the house.

An hour or so later, one of the police comes back and apologises, we then find out we are supposed to be dealing the rancid stuff! And if our door had been locked they would of broken it down.

Now, my poor 10yo DS is watching all this, and as you can imagine, getting a bit upset.
We have used it as an opportunity to explain to him about drugs, but thats by the by.

Policeman then says, he would be livid in our situation, and would try to find out who it was using the 'freedom of information act'.

SO....... My question is this...
How do I go about accessing the FOI act to find out who this malicious bastard is?

I am soooo , please can someone help?

speak to CAB as soon as you can

can you call a local solicitor - some will give an hours advice for free

sounds like a very upsetting incident

no idea.

but if you found out hat would you do? go round and beat them up? bcause then you would really get in trouble wth the police.
think very carefully before you take any action.

Nightmare. Do you not have an inkling of someone who may have it in for you? It might be worth pursuing with police as I'd have thought they need more grounds than a tip-off to get a search warrant. Maybe a CAB could point you in right direction.

I think this information is exempt from the freedom of information act.
Seems all a bit bizzare. If the police thought it was so unreasonable then why would they search your house?

As far as I'm aware, the police need a heck of a lot more than just an anonymous (or otherwise) tip off to get a search warrant. Go down to the police station and demand to speak to the person in charge of the investigation and be bolshy. Demand to know what information was provided to them and on what grounds they applied for the search warrant.

Message withdrawn

I thought they would need a lot more to go on than an anon tip off to get a warrant, but pc who came back to apologise said bacause it was alleged that we had large quantities of cocaine in the house, they caould act on that alone.
There was no confusion, warrant had DH name on, right address etc.
We've been up half the night trying to think if we've upset anyone, but we only have a smallish circle of friends, and beyond that basically keep ourselves to ourselves.

I'm more upset that they did it when my son was in.

If this info is exempt, then why did pc suggest we do this?
Will phone CAB in a min.

Thanks for your advice and support ladies, I know many of you must be thinking 'well there's no smoke without fire. etc', so thanks for not being judgy.

How very strange. There isn't anyone at work who might be having a go, is there? (Since you say you keep yourselves to yourselves... wouldn't use that line tbh, it's what neighbours always say when there's been a big crime or police raid!)

Hope CAB/demanding to see officer in charge is the way to go. But you've not suffered any loss, have you? Or had your reputations trashed in public? So I guess the cops will say 'sorry, but we have to act on information received' or something. Horrid experience, though.

HOLD ON
i sign warrants
how does thi happen

right what happens is that te police need to haev a LOT of inteligence( tat is secret ) to go to a home
they also are asked SPECIFICALLY about kids in the home and the itme of day,

there is no way this owudl happen wihotu a tiny bit of info that links you. normlaly there is a lto of corroborating quilaity evidence.

Look at your warrant - did a inspector ( or of simmilar rank)approve it
who signed it and when
is it timed?
is it your address?

The only thing I can think of that links us to police is DH has a couple of driving offences, but NOTHING for drugs.
He also got in a drunken fight about 20 years ago, but bloody hell!

WILLIAMGRAY... can you tell me what kind of inteligence police would need?
Warrant was dated 2 weeks ago.

thats a logn time.
INformaiton is graded acc to reliabiilty of sources - often crims dobb each other in to settle score.
are oyu new to he address? is there a similar addres s locally?
i woudl ring the police station
ask to make an appointment wiht hte inspector who must have approved the application for the warrant.

Thanks WG, warrant said must be acted on within 1 month of issue.
No, we have lived here for 3 years now with no trouble.

CAB not open til tuesday, so bit stuck til then.
Officer who signed warrant not on duty til 5 tonight, so will ring and speak to him then.
My DS had nightmares last night about people coming into the house, I need to find out why this was done, as I cant see what grounds they could even get a warrant on.........am so upset and confused.

Does anyone know how I could try to access FOI act?

It may lead nowhere, but I have to try.

If you look here:

FOI
And scroll down to point 30 - 31, seems like the information you are after is specifically excluded.

Can you ask if the police if they will be prosecuting the informant for wasting police time? They spent time and money on this and it was entirely without foundation after all. You can also request full written apology and an assurance that should further ridiculous claims be made by the same about your DH again that they will be ignored.

I finally got in touch with the officer who came to apologise last night (he said if I had any questions to contact him) and after being on hold for 18 mins, I asked him;
who is in charge of the investigation

He told me he didnt know.

I asked what info was provided and on what ground the warrant was sought, as I was sure that they needed more than just anon tip off.

He told me he wasnt at liberty to say, that he didnt have time to talk to me, and I should contact the duty officer (whose name he didnt know).

Am I being fobbed off, and what will happen if I pursue this?

I think a trip to your local police station is in order.

Sounds like they are fobbing you off tbh.
Put it in writing perhaps? Or, yes, a visit in person might do the trick?

I woudl pursue it on ground of wnating reassurance that there is no black (or even grey) mark against your name/address, especially if there has to be better evidence than just a tip off.

Our old address was the same street as one in the same town but in a slightly dodgier area..could this be a case of mistaken address identity?

They will definitely NOT tell you the name of the person who 'informed' them, it is covered by the Data Protection Act which trumps FOI. Besides, imagine if, actually, you and DH were nasty people who were just lucky enough to be 'clean' that night (or keep your stock elsewhere away from home) and they told you it was Mr Jones from number 35. Next thing you know they have a gbh/assault/murder to investigate and it's all their fault!

tigana, no, our address was correct inc postcode and DH name.

I know they will not tell me the identity of the informer, I'm more concerened about grounds they had for the warrant.

I can assure you, we are NOT nasty people who were lucky enough to be clean that night, and we dont have any 'stock' that we keep at home or anywhere else.

We also have no intention of gbh/assaulting/mudering mr jones from no 35, but it would be nice to find out why someone has a grudge against us.

FFS the only people who come to our house regularly are our elderly parents and a couple of friends.
Surely they would of watched the house first, and if so, and saw nobody coming and going they would have no grounds for a search?
I'm just trying to understand why this happened, and as I dont understand the legal system thought I would post here and see if someone could help.

I'm going to CAB on tuesday to see if I can get some legal advice.

Really could do without this TBH, scattered my brothers ashes today.