POLICE RIGHT OF ENTRY WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27080, 14 May 1949, Page 6

POLICE RIGHT OF ENTRY WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANT

Legal Point Raised:

PA AUCKLAND, May 13. If the police have reason to believe that a wanted man is in a particular house and have a warrant for his arrest, have they the right to enter those premises without the consent of the landlord or without a search warrant? This question was raised by defending counsel in the Magistrate’s Court to-day during the hearing of a charge against Bernard Robert Mathews of wilfully obstructing the police. Senior Detective Findlay told the court that when two detectives were investigating the breaking and entering of the Huia post office they had a, warrant to apprehend Ira Land, and believing he was in the house occupied by Mathews they went there. “You are not coming into my house without a search warrant,’’ Mathews told them. When s detective entered, Mathews tried to throw him out and in the scuffle tore his clothing. The defence counsel said his instructions were that the wanted man had left before the arrival of the police. In adjourning the case pending a decision on the legal point, Mr J. H. Luxford, S M„ said it was remarkable that the question had not arisen previously. It all went to show that the police had always had the co-operation of the public.