grants a search warrant, lasting thirty days, by means of which an officer of police, accompanied always by an entirely independent witness, may at any time enter such place, and carry off persons or things in evidence. The complaint of the citizen must be the first step in the proceedings." (7401).
In Section 7533 it is stated, "It does not matter whether the brothel has been conducted quietly or not, if a citizen, appearing, states to the magistrate that it is a brothel, and a superior official, a superintendent of the police, can corroborate that citizen in his statement,[1] the magistrate is required to issue a warrant, and that warrant extends for thirty days; and, if the police at any time during that thirty days find men and women in the house for the purpose of prostitution, they take into custody the person in charge of the house, the woman who may be the proprietress of the brothel, or any one that she may have managing it for her." Magistrates may inflict fine or imprisonment, and a second time may close the house. But this has never yet been necessary. The people wind it up of themselves. (7570-71.) "The motive
- ↑ This should not be necessary, though it would usually be convenient. Its being necessary gives to the police a discretionary power to permit the application. The private citizen making the application would, of course, do so on his own responsibility, if it was made maliciously or without probable cause.—W. Shaen.
