DRAWING A POLICE LINE

When they crashed into a townhouse looking for drugs, Toronto police
weren't taking chances. They battered down the door, tossed a stunning
"flash bang" into the home, and rushed in with weapons drawn. Two
people were charged with drugs offences.

Fair enough, Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Code decided. The
police had a warrant for the 2007 bust, and acted reasonably.

But then they proceeded to ransack the place with a zeal that dismayed
Code and violated the residents' constitutional right to be secure
against "unreasonable search" or seizure.

They hacked open the back of a sofa, broke a cabinet door, emptied
every closet, drawer and bookshelf out onto the floor, and left an
"extraordinary mess" behind, Code found earlier this year.

"Particularly troubling" was the officers' attitude. When asked why
they didn't put the scattered property back, one said: "We are police
officers. We are not Molly Maid." Another said: "There is no need to
put it back. We are not trying to be polite." Code found this "betrays
a serious misunderstanding of the limits of their powers."

"The deliberate and unnecessary damage to property, and the deliberate
and unnecessary disorder and disarray in which the property was left,
rendered the search unreasonable and in violation of Section 8 of the
Charter (of Rights and Freedoms)," he found.

Code decided to let seized drugs be presented as evidence. But he
warned that the police will risk future cases being thrown out if they
don't smarten up. It's a ruling the drug squad should take to heart.
Whatever some officers may think, there are limits. Crossing them
discredits the force, and puts justice in jeopardy.