Small courts accepting first of police raids (6)
I believe the answer is:
swoops
'raids' is the definition.
(I know this)
'small courts accepting first of police' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'courts' becomes 'woos' (woo can mean to court romantically).
'accepting' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are accepted).
'first of police' becomes 'p' (1st letter of 'police').
'woos' going around 'p' is 'woops'.
's'+'woops'='SWOOPS'
(Other definitions for swoops that I've seen before include "Busts" , "Descends swiftly through the air" .)