POLICE SEARCH WARRANTS

This has been a hot topic for long and the matter is being pushed again.  With proper justification,  we say.

It is difficult to believe that,  in this day and age,  when verbal communication travels infinitely faster in all directions than the speed of sound,  allowing criminals to dispose of illicit property more or less at will,    police have to make physical appearance before a judicial figure to obtain a warrant to search a property.  Let us not pretend it is a mainland problem either.

There is,  quite rightly,  apprehension that  individual police officers would abuse any system that would allow  the police themselves to grant warrants.  For example,  in the Republic of Ireland all too recently,  a judicial tribunal established  serious and sustained criminal conduct by Gardai of which a significant part was the "block advance" authorisation of warrants by the divisional superintendent.  The problem there,  of course,  was not the system itself but the fact that there was no proper supervision thereof.

We are all for change,  but with very strict supervision by an independent body.