ABSTRACT
At common law, the police have no right to enter into private property without a warrant. Accordingly, if they so enter and are asked to leave – even where reasonable force is used to evict them – the police are not acting in the execution of their duty and an individual cannot be convicted for assaulting a police officer executing his duty.212 There are a number of conditions under which a police officer might enter property, each of which is founded on the basis of a ‘lawful excuse’. In the absence of a lawful excuse for entry, the police committed a trespass. At common law, entry was lawful to prevent a breach of the peace,213 or in the case of actions designed to save life or prevent injury. Under the Criminal Law Act 1967, there was statutory power to enter premises in order to execute an arrest.
