In today’s situation we look at an incident in Canada, province undisclosed, where a man had his residence “broken in” by the local Police service. Actually, what happened, is that the local Emergency Response Team was executing a warrant and instead of going to the drug dealers house they botched the house numbers and hit this man’s house instead. The police did not “knock” on the door as they had a “no knock” warrant which means they are essentially kicking in the door and coming in. In this case, they booted the door, threw in flashbangs and had tactical officers storm the house. The man was the only one in the house at the time and he was promptly arrested at gunpoint. When the detectives entered the house, they realized they had the wrong home.

This actually does happen more often that one would think and certainly more often than the police would like to admit. It also doesn’t just happen with residential houses, as there is an example here where they actually executed the warrant on the wrong apartment:

“I was at home in my apartment on the 19th floor when my door burst in and the my local police Emergency Action Team (?) conducted a raid. I was sitting in my living room, alone. They demanded to know where “he” was as it was obvious very quickly that I was not the person that they were looking for and “he” was not in the apartment.

They showed me the warrant and I noticed that while the numbers indicated the 19th floor, the text version of the address indicated the sixteenth floor. Red faces all around. They raced off after making a call. A senior police officer came over along with a uniformed constable. The constable borrowed a chair and sat in the hallway guarding my apartment as the door was now leaned against the wall in my living room. The senior officer drove me to a very nice hotel downtown (close by my place) and booked me in. He asked me not to watch too much porn, told me I could have anything I wanted other than that and left me to my own devices. The next morning I was picked up and taken back to my apartment to gather my work clothes, a couple of guys were already remounting the door, and a different constable was play guard.”

So what can be done? Well, the first and most important part is that whatever the police find from searching the wrong residence during the raid is completely invalid and inadmissible. So, say for example you had some drug paraphilia sitting on the dining room table and they found it, they would not be able to do anything with it.

Second, yes you can sue the police department for any damage they have done while conducting the raid. I don’t doubt for a second, that as soon as the police realize they hit the wrong door they will quickly rush to have any repairs made or money issued to you for the repairs anyway. But they will definitely be covering any damages such as doors, windows, or damages to the fire alarms from smoke grenades and flashbangs. 

Finally, depending on how the raid is conducted you might be assaulted during the raid as the police go to arrest you. It is quite possible that during the confusion of the incident, you resist arrest and physical force has to be used on you. Should you sustain any injuries during such an incident, you can definitely sue the police. 

Stay safe.

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