OUTRAGEOUS: Texas Police Can Now Obtain Search Warrants Based On ‘Prediction Of A Future Crime’

[Judi Lynn]

Last edited Fri Dec 20, 2013, 05:23 PM - Edit history (1)

OUTRAGEOUS: Texas Police Can Now Obtain Search Warrants Based On ‘Prediction Of A Future Crime’

Welcome to the brave new world of 'pre-crime' policing.

December 18, 2013 |

Last week, an appeals court in Texas ruled that police may obtain a search warrant based on the prediction of a future crime, heightening public fears that we may be heading toward a ‘predictive policing’ era in which we see police powers rapidly growing at the cost of our constitutional rights.

The decision arose from a 2010 incident where police officers took Michael Fred Wehrenberg and some associates into custody after watching his home for about a month because of a tip-off from a confidential informant that Wehrenberg and others were “fixing to” cook methamphetamine , Raw Story reported.

Hours later, without a search warrant, officers waltzed through Wehrenberg's front door and searched the house while he and his friends stood outside in handcuffs for an hour and half.

Before they seized the boxes of pseudoephedrine, stripped lithium batteries and materials used to make meth, the cops attempted to cover their tracks by obtaining a search warrant. However, they conveniently failed to mention the unlawful search in the warrant application and based their request entirely on the informant's tip.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/outrageous-texas-police-can-now-obtain-search-warrants-based-prediction-future-crime?akid=11288.1885837.-m1QD2&rd=1&src=newsletter938308&t=5

[pipoman]

1. and how is that different than the NSA warrants?

Other than the warrant was issued by a legitimate court. .

[NewJeffCT]

2. Wasn't that a Tom Cruise movie

a few years ago?

[Betsy Ross]

10. My first thought too.

Oops. Is that a thought crime?

[NRaleighLiberal]

11. +1. n/t

[MisterP]

17. and several techniques in "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri"

so nerve stapling = mainstream politics?
"X's policy is opposite to what you say X'll bring"
"but I approve because X said it"
"why then do you support X?"
*blank stare*
"Nazi/Commie!"

[sakabatou]

18. Yes

[imthevicar]

3. Thought Crime comes to America.

[JimDandy]

4. Police using our private data against us

is now called "predictive data". Their "confidential informants" are likely to be computers that illegally and/or legally (because of bad case law or laws that need to be fixed) spy on us using our own digital devices (or cameras and license readers installed in public) to gather info on who we meet with, where we go, what we buy etc.

Analyzing that data to then finger someone as likely to commit a crime isn't the wave of the future; it is happening now. And the police are simply covering up how they obtained the info in order to get a search warrant (in this case, after the fact).

[dembotoz]

5. so happy Prof Trelaney of harry potter fame got a new job

please excuse the spelling of her name.....

"That house has the mark of the GRIM'

[no more banksters]

6. Breaking: Investigation on police chief's alleged call targeting migrants in Greece

http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2013/12/breaking-investigation-on-police-chiefs.html

[CanonRay]

7. That's just lousy police work

and then getting the courts to cover for the shoddy work. That search was illegal as hell. Don't judges read the damn constitution anymore?

[DFW]

8. They had better watch what they set in motion

What are they going to do when some crazy guy armed to the teeth starts shooting cops, and his defense is that he's afraid of potential police brutaility?

[Dustlawyer]

9. Welcome to the future! This is what happens when you allow organizations like the

U.S. Chamber of Commerce help to stack the Courts by dumping a lot of money in Judicial elections. These Justices are elected in races where the one with the most money wins. No one knows any of the Judges running so the names you hear over and over stick with you in the voting booth. The Chamber started focusing on state and local elections and judicial elections about 35 years ago. Add to that all of the W appointed judges and you see that things are going to be much harder to overturn. The Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals are the top Courts in Texas and a prime example of what I am talking about.
Texas Watch, a non profit that monitors the courts has found that the Texas Supreme Court sides with business 87% of the time!

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. Having read only the article ...

but not the Court's Opinion ... I'd say the Court's ruling is correct with respect to the exclusionary rule. This isn't about "predictive policing" at all ... there was nothing "predictive" about the defendants being in possession of the drug-making materials.

The dissenting judge's focus on the confidential informant's use of the words "fixing to", misses the rule. I suspect the court had evidence that the CI actually observed the drug making material; thereby, providing the independent source.

However, the defendant should have argued (and maybe they did) that the drug making material still should have been excluded because the warrant was invalid due to "the clear evidence (based only on the article's account) of police misconduct." The defense should have argued: against the credibility of the CI, as the police clearly did not trust him/her, or they wouldn't have had to go in without a warrant. Then, attack the independent source doctrine by attacking the credibility of the CI and the police by arguing: if the CI actual had observed the drug making material, the police could have/should have been able to get the search warrant on that basis, and would not have had to go in, conduct the search ... then seek the warrant, while covering up their initial search.

The only "good" thing that will likely be the result of this is those officers will never, again, be able to get a search warrant from the judge to signed the warrant. Judges are funny that way ... they have very long memories, get caught lying to them, once, and you will never again be trusted.

[Half-Century Man]

13. "Thin Blue Line Oujia Boards"

Comming soon to the door kickers in your area.

[Brigid]

14. Dear Texas police:

"Minority Report" was not a documentary!

[dickthegrouch]

15. How many Texas police are considering crimes?

Falsifying evidence
Lying to investigators
Planting evidence
Covering up colleagues wrongdoing when IA asks

All those are crimes, dear cops. Deserving of search warrants.

I think this falls into the bucket of "Be careful what you wish for".

[blkmusclmachine]

16. Welcome to the Police State.

9/11 was just an excuse to do what they wanted to do all along.

[avebury]

19. So much for 4th Amendment rights. nt

[TheKentuckian]

20. Bathwater meet baby, baby meet bathwater and I'm for throwing it all out.

DEFUND THE POLICE NOW!

[avebury]

21. Ohhh - is that same philosophy

that is routinely applied to gun owners (allowing them to shoot anybody that comes on their property)? They think that the person could be a future threat to them and thus go ahead an shoot them now?