Goes both ways though, people are saying they were "evicted." If that's true it's the only thing that makes sense. Cops will not generally interfere with that kind of thing unless there's a court order already active. Meaning the landlord could change the locks even it isn't legal to do that, and the cops wouldn't do anything about it. When I was 18 I rented a house from some real assholes that was full of fleas. I started bitching about it, left one day, came back and all the locks were changed and the cops refused to do anything at all. Said I'd have to take it to court.