Asking for a search warrant

[William Lionheart]

Well i've got another question again :p This time its about asking for a search warrant. I need to know what are the legit reasons to ask for one.

I know the following when its legitimate.

- When you hear contraband
- When you see a suspicious person
- When you see a rebel / corleone going inside a house although they're banned from the city
- When you see armed people inside a house
- When you see a wanted person

I've already asked Termin the other day if asking for a search warrant for a suspicious building and he told me that's not a legit reason. My question is how far can you go till you need a search warrant on somebodies property. I've seen a couple of cases the other day that had buildings (not bases to be exact) that had blocked off windows and a keypad for a door. The door is obviously why because if you build a house its the only way to key a door closed , but if you've got nothing to hide why have no windows? So what are the right reasons to ask for a search warrant? I've checked the guides but nothing that specifies on these things.

I've one more last question : Is it allowed to open a door with the battering ram of an unowned door that is locked yet whole the place is unowned? I ask these questions to improve my role playing as a Police Officer and become an even better role player.

[Dr Tomorrow]

- When you hear contraband
Yes


- When you see a suspicious person


No
You MUST have evidence
Do not warrant for people being suspicious
You are officer, not a detective


- When you see a rebel / corleone going inside a house although they're banned from the city

You just force them to leave city and if they refuse, arrest them


- When you see armed people inside a house

Don't know how can you see people INSIDE THE HOUSE if you are not a wallhacker or fearless all of a sudden includes new item. Thermal vision googles


- When you see a wanted person

Explain how you see wanted person inside the house

[Rayne]

- When you see armed people inside a house

Don't know how can you see people INSIDE THE HOUSE if you are not a wallhacker or fearless all of a sudden includes new item. Thermal vision googles


- When you see a wanted person

Explain how you see wanted person inside the house

-lol that cracked me up xD-

-I think he meant through the windows I guess ,, or hears gunshots .

-Maybe he,,,,, I have no explanation for that ...

------------------------------------BTT--------------------------------

tbh I need a little bit of help with that too ,, Since I can't hear contra for some reason . I never ever EVER asked for a search warrant

[Foxy The Pirate]

I would say if you see people with guns inside the house maybe knock on the door and ask why they have guns (not with your gun drawn ofcourse). And i say this because i get police officers storming my house 24/7 if i have a shotgun or even a pistol on me in my own house when i actually only use weapons for defense in my house (people trying to raid for no reason than the syndrome that people seem to have where they have the delusion that everyone on FL that owns a home has contra)

[Dr Tomorrow]

Sorry im too lazy right now to write down the whole lecture but i probably know who will
* Dr Tomorrow points at Adman

[William Lionheart]

- When you hear contraband
Yes


- When you see a suspicious person


No
You MUST have evidence
Do not warrant for people being suspicious
You are officer, not a detective


- When you see a rebel / corleone going inside a house although they're banned from the city

You just force them to leave city and if they refuse, arrest them


- When you see armed people inside a house

Don't know how can you see people INSIDE THE HOUSE if you are not a wallhacker or fearless all of a sudden includes new item. Thermal vision googles


- When you see a wanted person

Explain how you see wanted person inside the house

1) Noted
2) I mean through the window of course (had to type it really fast this morning :p )
3) ^ and for example you see another officer trying to arrest a suspect , he gets killed suspect runs away and you follow the suspect

Thing is i'm not going to raid a house for no legit reasons at all , i always radio in what is happening and what info i have on the matter. If given orders to search it , I always request for backup before going in.

[DoomDude1]

First off, I am very glad that someone is actually asking questions in order to improve their Police RP, instead of "winging" it. I salute you for this.

Now, the ability of the Police to ask for warrants and to use them is a great one. I shall not get into the question of the President and if he deems your reasons good enough for a warrant, this is all about rules.

-Contraband related
Yes, when you see people carrying contraband or if you hear contraband you are allowed to ask for a search warrant. Make sure you are 100% positive though.

- When you see a suspicious person
This is a tricky question, as it might fall into metagaming. I can not think of a way without metagaming that you could identify a house as suspicious, unless they show clear signs on the building itself (someone writing "F*ck the police" and placing guns on the wall). If you come across these situations, you should clear each and every one of them individually with an admin.

- When you see a rebel / corleone going inside a house although they're banned from the city
Again, if you are 100% positive they are indeed in the house you are coming up to then technically yes. Do not get the warrant and bust in though, try to escort them gently and inform them of their ban.

- When you see armed people inside a house
As previously stated, you cannot see them while they are inside, unless the building has a conveniently placed window. If you do see armed people run into a building, or see them through a window/hole in the fence (when it is a built base) you can ask for a search warrant. Approach with caution after you get it, call for backup.

- When you see a wanted person
I must admit, people rarely use the /wanted command, so I'm not sure how to treat it. I believe when someone is wanted his pictures are posted around town, so he is easily identified. You should ask for a warrant on a wanted person, only if he is in the building itself, and deal with his property after his arrest.

I found that the general advice for warrants is that you should use that as a last resort. Try to talk your way into a building, don't run up and warrant everything. Besides, if you look at a door IRL do you see the owner's name on it?
One of the most important things about being an officer is knowing how to handle power. Sadly, a lot of players do not know how to manage having a free gun and the power to warrant (especially with uninterested Presidents who accept every warrant). The fact that I RP-ed my way into many a building saved my life on a lot of occasions, as there was nothing in there, but armed passive RP-ers (Yes, I know what that sounds like).

All in all, just use common sense. Make sure you are positive on the crime, and try to deal with it without lethal force.

[Adman]

Ok so I am going to try and keep this simple.

The search warrant is used as the government's means of entering locked properties (Keypads count as this).

The only time you use this is to enforce the law, when on earth would a policeman ask for a search warrant (Normally a pretty long winded process in real life) because someone has boarded windows or closed curtains.

Essentially, whatever breaks the law and is behind a locked door requires a search warrant. If weapons are legal to possess, than someone having one by their side inside their house doesn't require a search warrant for example.

You've pointed out all the main examples, all of which are dependent on laws of course, but everything must be applied to context too. If large bases are banned, and perhaps a criteria for what dictates a 'large base' then you could request search warrants for them.

The only things that would always require search warrants, independent of stated laws, are illegalities behind locked doors associated with the permanent laws.

I hope this could help, and in a short answer to your primary questions of whether suspicion of a building warrants a search warrant, then no. Of course, it all depends on ones definition of suspicion, as suspicion of contraband (backed up by evidence [sight/sound etc.] of course) would warrant a search but just because a building looks unorthodox or 'bad' would be dependent on the policeman's prejudices and stereotypes.

The simpler answer, is just because it looks suspicious in a design sense doesn't mean you can ask for a search warrant.

[William Lionheart]

Thanks for the info both you Doomdude1 and Adman . It helped me a lot to know these things because the process would go easyer and might prevent conflicts.

As for ramming closed unowned doors is it allowed or not?

[DoomDude1]

As for ramming closed unowned doors is it allowed or not?

In my opinion, that is a situational thing. For instance, on v2d when you are impounding a car, the only way to get into the garage from the outside is to ram the door. On the other hand, ramming elevator doors when there is no problem is just idiotic. It is allowed, but use common sense.