Court Opinion

ID: 9884677
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 03:06:19.392783+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:39.280408
License: Public Domain

KIRSCH, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
While it may not be improper per se for an armed and uniformed police officer to accompany a private party to the seene of self-help eviction or repossession, such a practice is fraught with the potential for abuse. It creates the false impression that the eviction or repossession is being effected pursuant to court authority although the officer has no way of knowing whether the eviction or repossession is lawful or unlawful. When, as here, a police officer puts his hand on his gun when the eviction is questioned by one who is rightfully upon the property, it heightens that false impression.
I think there are material questions of fact whether the police officer here was assisting in an unlawful eviction, and I would reverse the grant of summary judgment and remand for trial.