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Sunday, March 9, 2003 |
The Secret Policeman's Ball
According to The Capital Times, our local police department has found a new way around those tedious search warrants.
On Dec. 17, 2001, the Madison Police Department's Emergency Response Team, after resolving what was initially believed to be a hostage situation, performed a search of more than 20 hotel rooms.
The search was ordered without search warrants, and the occupants of the rooms and the hotel management were not told about it.
Police made no mention of the "protective sweep" on any report after the incident.
Fortunately for the public, one police officer understood his civic duty enough to protest (and has almost certainly ended his career by doing so; our current police chief is not one to take kindly to independent thought by subordinates). Certainly he understands his civic duty better than his Captain, Randall Gaber, who told him that obtaining warrants would have been "too cumbersome".
Secret sweep? Cop challenges search at hotel
