Bailiffs called the police – Get CAD messages and officer notebook comments

If a bailiff says anything like the police are on their way, you should contact the local police via the non-emergency number and ask for the CAD messages. These contain a transcript of the bailiff’s call to the police, if one was made.

If the police do attend, you are entitled to ask for the officers’ notebook comments recorded at the scene.

A CAD report is a method used by police to dispatch officers to an incident and is assigned a CAD number. All CAD messages remain on the system for nearly 12 months before being archived, and they are then stored for a further seven years.

You may request information about an incident over the phone, provided it is not contrary to the public interest. You can also make a written request for a printout of CAD messages. These may be redacted to protect the identities of individual police officers.

When a bailiff says he has called the police, you can request the CAD messages to verify that police were actually contacted at the time and date stated. Some police forces may dictate the content of messages over the phone, but if you intend to use the material in legal proceedings, you should either make a sworn statement or ask the police for certified evidence confirming whether or not the bailiff contacted them.

If you discover that the bailiff lied about calling the police, you can use this to discredit their evidence in any future legal proceedings. This may amount to fraud by false representation, which is an offence under Section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006.