Police may enter private property to keep peace
Police officers went to a hall where a public meeting which had been extensively advertised was about to take place; the police sergeant in charge of the party was refused admission to the hall but insisted on entering and remaining there during the meeting. The question arose as to whether the police were entitled to take that course.
Held: The English authorities were expressed in very wide terms. A police officer has a duty to prevent any breach of the peace which has occurred or which he reasonably apprehends will occur. Pursuant to this duty he is entitled to enter onto and remain on private property without the consent of the occupier or owner.
Avory J said that ‘[t]o prevent . . a breach of the peace the police were entitled to enter and to remain on the premises’ and ‘I cannot doubt that he has a right to break in to prevent an affray which he has reasonable cause to suspect may take place on private premises.’
Lord Hewart CJ said that ‘a police officer has ex virtute officii full right to so act when he has reasonable ground for believing that an offence is imminent or is likely to be committed’ and ‘I think that there is quite sufficient ground for the proposition that it is part of the preventive power, and, therefore, part of the preventive duty, of the police, in cases where there are such reasonable grounds of apprehension [of a misdemeanour or breach of the peace], to enter and remain on private premises. It goes without saying that the powers and duties of the police are directed, not to the interests of the police, but to the protection and welfare of the public’ and ‘It is elementary that a good defence to an action for trespass is to show that the act complained of was done by authority of law, or by leave and licence.’
Lawrence J said: ‘If a constable in the execution of his duty to preserve the peace is entitled to commit an assault, it appears to me that he is equally entitled to commit a trespass.’
Avory J, Lord Hewart CJ, Lawrence J
[1935] 2 KB 249, 30 Cox CC 265 KB
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – McLeod, Mealing (deceased) v Metropolitan Police Commissioner CA 3-Feb-1994
The plaintiff appealed against the dismissal of her claims for trespass and breach of duty by the defendant’s officers. In divorce proceedings, she had been ordered to return certain household goods to her husband, but had failed yet to do so. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Police, Torts – Other
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.471227
