In Los Angeles, California, if apparent police show up at my door with an apparent search warrant in their hands at 3am, how can I independently verify this?
I don't want to be tricked into opening the door.
One option is to call the local police department, and ask...is this the best? Will the police wait the 10 minutes this might require? Can I really trust my phone line? I feel like internet security is better and would prefer to use a secure government website.
There are two questions here:
Is it really the police, or someone pretending to be the police in order to stage a home invasion? If it is the police they will be wearing uniforms and showing you their badges. I don't know how common it is for criminals to impersonate police officers.
Do they have a valid search warrant? Once you have established that they really are police your best course is to stand back and let them in. Arguing about search warrants and "fruit of the poisoned tree" is a job for a lawyer later on.
One option might be to quickly dial 911, put the phone down but still listening, and then open the door while saying "are you police, can I see your badge?". If they are police then no problem. If they turn out to be imposters then the 911 dispatcher should be able to figure it out and send the real police around.
Search warrants are frequently sealed and not accessible to the public until after they are served, so that someone checking public records can't be tipped off that law enforcement agents are headed their way and hide evidence or flee.
Calling 911 or a local police department is the best that you can do to verify that a search warrant someone verbally states that they have is bona fide (although looking through a peep hole in a door at a document is a good second best solution). Neither are ideal or perfect solutions.
You can trust that if you called 911 or the police that this is who you are reaching. Given the time urgency 911 would probably be a better choice. You can't trust that they are telling you the truth and law enforcement is allowed to lie to achieve lawful criminal justice ends in most circumstances in the U.S. (at least as a matter of constitutional criminal procedure, state law may vary). This said, you don't have other choices, and if you resist you are likely to end up dead from a barrage of police bullets.
