Searches by police

[Sis]

I only caught a bit of this on the news and couldn't find anything in print yet, but basically, the DC police want to go from door to door to ask folks if they can search their homes for guns. I can't believe it. They promise not to prosecute if they find any, they will just remove the guns.

What is this? Nazi Germany?

Use a bit of fear to talk folks out of their constitutional rights and the trouble is, most folks will just hand their rights over. The "reason" they want to do this is,  some parents don't know if their kids have guns. Well, DUHHHHH search your kid's rooms yourself!

Tell ya one thing, no police is searching my house without a warrant and probable cause.

[Sis]

I just heard it again. They want to wait and make the public "more comfortable" with the idea before starting it. So I gather a couple months of police propaganda before they start? 

[Sis]

Found a hard copy on MyfoxDC.com

DC Cops To Ask For Consent To Search Homes

Created: Monday, 24 Mar 2008, 5:53 PM EDT 

You have a constitutional right to privacy, but it evaporates into thin air with three simple words: "Come on in."

That's exactly what DC cops hope to hear as they go on a door to door hunt for illegal weapons.

For a city that has a gun ban, cops took almost 3,000 off the street last year alone. Their solution? Get them before they hit the streets. It's a touchy concept that's not so cut and dry.

In DC's most crime-ridden neighborhoods weathered notes and stuffed animals memorialize those killed on these streets.

The American Civil Liberties Union went door to door in a Ward 8 neighborhood. They're warning people not to voluntarily let police search their home for guns under a new plan police launched this week.

Police are putting flyers and consent forms in police districts, community centers and plan to attend community meetings to explain the new "Safe Homes" program before officers start going door to door.

It's voluntary and police are promising amnesty, even if they find other illegal substances instead of a weapon.

The idea is not new.

Police in Saint Louis, Missouri first launched a "Consent to Search" program in 1994. That program ended five years later.

Last year, Boston police announced a similar initiative and plan to start searching homes in a few weeks.

In St. Louis, 98% consented to searches in the first year. Police found guns in half the homes, seizing 402 weapons and, as promised, did not prosecute people.

DC police say they're responding to parents who asked for help. Convincing the rest of the public, however, may be a challenge.
http://www.myfoxdc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6119067&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
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[jdcord]

They may not be prosecuting anyone in those homes where they found the guns, but I guarantee you they made a nice "list" of those addresses, along with the names of the people who lived there.


........ oh yeah, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they just so happened to have lifted some finger prints off of those confiscated guns - to add to their database, as well as to run them through that database to see if they matched prints in any of their unsolved cases.  I wonder how many "leads" they came up with that way?