[abrodersen]

This did not satisfy the probable cause. Police dug through the trash and conducted a field test, and the field test incorrectly tested positive for THC. The author criticized these field tests in the original piece as being wildly inaccurate and too easy to coerce into positive results.

[jandrese]

Those test kits are sometimes called probable cause kits, since they produce false positives so frequently. The conspiracy theory is that they're working exactly as desired and that more accurate kits would be counterproductive to their actual purpose.

[guard-of-terra]

Why would they do that? Why fake the test that will make you raid the empty house and look bad?

[fweespeech]

If less than .5% of the families you raid have the ability to defend themselves via lawyers and PR [as is the case in the OP], literally only one family in 200+ was able to and willing to do so....there won't be any consequences.

The OP basically has emails/internal communication basically stating they want drug users to "fear" 4/20 in their communities.

It is a campaign of terror.

> Thanks again to all of you who worked on this. I think for a first time even this was absolutely an outstanding success. The media coverage was 99% positive on this which is pretty darn good as well. We’ve had a lot of suggestions for this operation next year, such as having a telethon type billboard with a large green marijuana plant filling up as the pledges come in, making T-Shirts and whatnot. One agency had the observation that if this continues for a couple years 4/20 will be something to fear rather than something to celebrate.

> The press release sent out the morning of April 20 announced that police would be targeting 375 houses across both Kansas and Missouri. But Wingo later reported that police found just 52 marijuana grows. That’s better than single digit number of grows found in 2012. But it also means that more than 300 households were wrongly targeted.

Notice how, of the 300+ people wrongly targeted, no one complained in a substantial way?

The police, quite literally, are used to suffering no consequences for ridiculous rates of error.

Similarly, every single time they make an arrest its noted as a positive performance of their job duties. Its simple incentives built into the way the officers are reviewed like that that drive this. [e.g. If you view your job is to make arrests, you make arrests.]

[chc]

Police go on fishing expeditions all the time. Just because they don't actually have proof of the thing they were looking for doesn't mean they can't find anything to hang you. I once had a traffic stop evolve into the officer telling me I could either let him search my car or he'd call in a dog to give him probable cause. There really wasn't anything for him to find, but he doesn't have any reason not to play the odds.

[gingerrr]

Luckily this particular practice is no longer legally sanctioned: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodriguez_v._United_States

[gknoy]

It would be nice to have a card that lists these landmark decisions, so that when pulled over you have a way to quickly have handy the names of cases.

"If you don't let me search your car, I'm going to call in a dog ..." "Officer, the Supreme Court ruled in People vs Rodriguez (2015) that a traffic stop becomes unlawful if it is prolonged beyond the time reasonably required to complete the mission of issuing a ticket for the violation."

Of course, making such an argument at the time might be unwise, but at least you know that the law is on your side if you decide to decline the search.

[biot]

I've seen various apps for that, including an enumeration of your rights by jurisdiction as to whether you're required to show an officer ID, stop & frisk laws, etc.

[guard-of-terra]

Make one, sell it on ebay, profit.

[abrodersen]

Besides bad PR, there are no repercussions, especially with this ruling that the police aren't liable. They can raid lots of homes and catch more drug makers, and they don't have to pay for any inconvenient injuries or deaths.

[reverend_gonzo]

They may have information through a confidential informant (that they don't want to give up) or a method that is not legal (and can't be used to get a warrant). So, instead, they use a field test that may often show a false positive, but is enough to get the warrant and get inside.

[jandrese]

Confidential Informants like the cop writing down the license plates outside of the hydroponics shop?

[ceejayoz]

Because in general the people they raid don't have the resources to spend $25k on a lawsuit to get the media attention. It's mostly risk-free, and they can find something illegal in most houses.