Police raid

Tactic used by police

A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, endanger the public or officers if approached through other means, or simply be elsewhere at another time. Various tactics are used by law enforcement in raids that often vary based on available equipment, situational factors, laws, and police powers.

The U. S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) defines a raid as "a sudden appearance by officers for the purpose of arresting suspected law violators and seizing contraband and the means and instruments used in the commission of a crime."

Dawn raids were a common event in Auckland, New Zealand, during a crackdown on illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands from the mid 1970s to the early 1980s. The raids were first introduced in 1973 by Norman Kirk's Labour government and were continued by Robert Muldoon's National government. These operations involved special police squads conducting raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand usually at dawn. Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted and then deported back to their countries. The Dawn raids were particularly controversial, as despite Pacific Islanders only making on one third of visa over stayers, they accounted for 86% of those arrested and prosecuted. The majority of over stayers were from Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa. In mid June 2021, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that the New Zealand Government would formally apologise for the Dawn Raids at the Auckland Town Hall on 26 June 2021.

A no knock raid is a type of police raid performed under a no knock warrant. No knock warrants are controversial for various reasons, and have seen increased usage from the 1960s on. There have been many cases where armed homeowners, believing that they are being invaded, have shot at officers, resulting in deaths on both sides. The number of no knock raids has increased from 3,000 in 1981 to more than 50,000 in 2005, according to Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. In 2010, Kraska estimated 60,000–70,000 no knock or quick knock raids were conducted by local police annually, the majority of which were looking for marijuana. In Utah, no knock warrants made up about 40% of warrants served by SWAT teams in 2014 and 2015, usually for drugs and usually done at night. In Maryland, 90% of SWAT deployments were to serve search warrants, with two thirds through forced entry. From 2010 through 2016, at least 81 civilians and 13 officers died during SWAT raids, including 31 civilians and eight officers during execution of no knock warrants. Half of the civilians killed were minorities. Of those subject to SWAT search warrants, 42% are black and 12% are Hispanic. Since 2011, at least seven federal lawsuits against officers executing no knock warrants have been settled for over $1 million.

During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, the Nazis carried out numerous raids. The largest and most infamous is the Raid of Rotterdam on 10 and 11 November 1944, in which 52,000 men between the ages of 17 and 40 (some 80% of all men) from Rotterdam and Schiedam were rounded up and put on transport to labor camps.