Ugh I hate hearing about cops who can't do search and seizures properly. Even if they did find something like an illegal knife or drugs it's not dismissible in court because there's no probably cause for the search. The reason they didn't issue your niece a report or receipt or anything was because they didn't want to do the paperwork and assumed the victim would just grumble about it to themselves and maybe a few friends. I don't want to say don't file a report against the officer, but don't hold out hope that it will amount to jack. He'll most likely get a lecture from his commanding officer and if you raise enough stink maybe the commanding officer's commanding officer will have a chat, but even then. It's a ****ty world out there and there are some shortcut techniques that have just become too common.
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