This is really a disturbing trend. Police are increasingly going to homes with agents from regulatory agents under the guise of “code inspections.” Once inside, they then search for criminal misconduct. The process negates the need for a search warrant because it’s allegedly a regulatory inspection, not a police search.

I wrote last year about how this was becoming increasingly common in Buffalo. It’s also how a local narcotics task force was able to execute a 90-man police raid on Rack ‘n’ Roll Billiards in Manassas Park, Virginia. They came in under the guise of an Alcoholic Beverage Control inspection. But once they got in, they turned the place upside down. And it’s clear that their intent was to look for criminal wrongdoing by the bar’s owner, David Ruttenberg.

Looks like that was the case last week in Stockton, California. A “code enforcement” team paid a visit to a family after a neighbor complained of drug use. The police claim they heard someone run to the back of the house. So an officer went around to the back door. That’s when the family dog ran out, toward the officer. He fired at the dog, hitting in the paw, and fragments of the bullet then also struck a woman and her daughter.

Turns out, the code enforcement team had the wrong address.

The comments to the article are bizarre. Note the guy who says the police were only doing their job, and that these are “ungrateful citizens” for even thinking about suing.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.