Small courts absorbing first of police raids (6)
I believe the answer is:
swoops
'raids' is the definition.
(swoop is a kind of raid)
'small courts absorbing first of police' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'courts' becomes 'woos' ('woo' can be a synonym of 'court').
'absorbing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'first of police' becomes 'p' (1st letter of 'police').
'woos' placed around 'p' is 'woops'.
's'+'woops'='SWOOPS'
(Other definitions for swoops that I've seen before include "Descends swiftly through the air" , "Busts" .)