URA Confirms That Officers Can Enter Homes Without Warrant to Check on COVID-19 Measures

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Let’s face it: if the authorities did not enforce COVID-19 regulations, 95% of people would break the rules.

Even with fines and the threat of jail time, many residents here have held large gatherings, gone out in public bare-faced, and argued with police officers about safe distancing.

It’s therefore unsurprising that the government has given enforcement officers to authority to do things they wouldn’t normally be allowed to do.

Like entering someone’s home without a warrant.

Actor Nick Mikhail Complains of “Bullying” After URA & SPF Officers Enter His Home Without Warrant

Our story starts, as it tends to these days, with an Instagram post. 

In a post yesterday (2 Aug), actor Nick Mikhail complained about officers from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Singapore Police Force entering his home without a warrant.

The post showed a video of at least six officers in Mikhail’s home, talking to his wife and walking around.

“When you feel bullied,” the caption read.

Mikhail claimed that the officers came in without a warrant, though he didn’t say why.

The actor wasn’t at home at the time.

He seemed particularly irate about the fact that a male URA officer escorted his wife into one of their rooms, without the supervision of a police officer, who would be wearing a body camera.

Mikhail addressed the post to URA and SPF, adding that he has sent the videos to his lawyer.

His post has garnered over 103,000 views and nearly 4,000 likes.

URA: Officers Can Enter Homes Without Warrant to Check on COVID-19 Measures

It turns out that officers had entered Mikhail’s home to check if the occupants were adhering to COVID-19 regulations.

URA said that since late June this year, agencies have received complaints from residents of the landed housing estate that some residences, including Mikhail’s, were having gatherings with more than the permitted number of visitors.

Residents also complained of the noise from these gatherings.

Thus, to check for potential infringements of COVID-19 regulations, officers from different agencies had been deployed to the estate.

On 31 July, three URA safe distancing officers, along with three police officers, conducted enforcement checks on a few residences in the estate.

One of these was Mikhail’s home.

When they arrived, they found two cars outside the residence and noticed that the gate was wide open and house lights still on, even though it was in the night.

So, they made a decision to check the flat to determine if the number of visitors was a permissible amount.

When they knocked on the door and spoke to a woman, who presumably was Mikhail’s wife, she agreed to allow the officers to come in and escorted them around their house to do their checks.

URA added that all three of their officers, one of whom is female, followed the woman in a single file for the inspection.

“Towards the end of the inspection, the female occupant went to retrieve her IC from the next room, with one of the safe distancing enforcement officers following after to take down the details. A police officer and the female safe distancing enforcement officer joined them in the next room shortly after.”

The inspection lasted less than 10 minutes, URA said. There were no other people in the house.

They then conducted checks on other homes.

URA maintained that their officers, as well as the police officers, were polite towards the female occupant and treated her with respect throughout the inspection.

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Featured Image: Instagram (nickmikhailrazak)

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]