Section 17 of PACE would have allowed them to force entry to save life or limb
Let me tell you how annoying it is when you take your elderly mother on holiday for a few days, only to return to find a neighbour asked the police for a 'welfare check', there is no longer a front door, a hall full of tiny fragments of broken glass, you have to pay hundreds on the spot just to get the boarding-up cowboys to open it up, wait 6 weeks for a new door, end up hundreds out of pocket for insurance excess, and the concerned neighbour never even identifies themselves.
Oh and a year later the crappy replacement lock fails and it's hundreds more for a locksmith callout and replacement.
That probably would also have resulted in the kicked in door or smashed window with the added benefit of all of your valuable possessions being relinquished from your ownership
Let me tell you how annoying it is when you take your elderly mother on holiday for a few days, only to return to find a neighbour asked the police for a 'welfare check', there is no longer a front door, a hall full of tiny fragments of broken glass, you have to pay hundreds on the spot just to get the boarding-up cowboys to open it up, wait 6 weeks for a new door, end up hundreds out of pocket for insurance excess, and the concerned neighbour never even identifies themselves.
Oh and a year later the crappy replacement lock fails and it's hundreds more for a locksmith callout and replacement.