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the police did the right thing... " I wanted them to break the door down, but they said they couldn’t without a warrant. They said the landlord needed to deal with it.".
Fuck giving the police any more power or authority than they have.
Velocio-
Fuck giving the police any more power or authority than they have.
Agreed, but they already have the power. Section 17 of PACE would have allowed them to force entry to save life or limb. They must have thought there wasn't any such threat at the time. I almost used it once when I used to work for/with them. Call that a neighbour could see through a skylight and there were a pair of legs that belonged to a seemingly unconscious person sticking out of the bathroom door. When we got there, the ambulance had beaten us to it. Door open and lock pieces strewn up the hallway.
CSB: dude had had a bit too much GHB, passed out in the bathroom and was soon medically fine. But as he was coming round, he became VERY friendly and was trying to get one of the paramedics to come to bed with him. Totally oblivious to the 6 other people standing around his bed.
stevo_com
She called the police twice. “I told them my neighbour was missing and there was a bad smell. They came and stood outside the door and said they couldn’t smell anything. They said perhaps she had gone away and left a pet behind, or perhaps some food had gone off and was rotting. I knew she didn’t have a pet; you’re not allowed them in this building. I wanted them to break the door down, but they said they couldn’t without a warrant. They said the landlord needed to deal with it.” The second time she called the police – she can’t remember precisely when – she found their response even less helpful. “They seemed quite annoyed – like we were just a bunch of nosy neighbours. They said they couldn’t do anything.”
*The police confirm that they went twice to the flat in October 2020 “but found no grounds for forcing entry”; their involvement was referred to the Directorate of Professional Standards in March, which ruled that it did not reach the threshold for getting the Independent Office for Police Conduct involved, “due to the likelihood that the resident was deceased before the calls to police”.
“It’s odd – they seem to be saying it doesn’t matter they didn’t do their job properly because she was already dead,” Harman says. She has attempted to get an explanation from the police and Peabody about how officers could conclude that they had spoken to Sheila, when she was almost certainly long dead.*