[kickout]

Drive through this county everyday. The tricks they got up their sleeve are impressive if you don’t have a local plate. RIP to Illinois and Cali plates.

ETA: Yes, everyday you drive through this county you will see cops searching vehicles (usually out of state plates, CO/CA/IL the most obvious). Almost feel bad for legit people driving through I80 with out of state plates, but the's what happens when you have a low population state with a major thoroughfare. They have some really clever social engineering tactics too that a former worker of mine tipped me on.

[arcticbull]

> ... but the's what happens when you have a low population state with a major thoroughfare.

Well, not really - that's what happens when you don't fully fund your law enforcement at a state or federal level and instead leave them to fund themselves through fines and seizures. Local authorities shouldn't be allowed to keep a single penny of anything they seize or any fines they rack up. They should be fully funded by higher-level authorities based on demonstrated need. The current setup is rife with obvious moral hazard.

[kickout]

They don't need funding. Seward county is virtually no/low crime. They likely could get by with a handful of officers, which the tax payers would likely gladly pay. No a lot of need for LE with 10K residents in the county in arguably the middle of no where (yes, it's ~20 from the capital of the state)

[hparadiz]

Ftfy: They should be in prison.

It's not our responsibility to fund every bumblefuck police force with a staff of 5 in a town with a population of 500. They shouldn't even have jurisdiction on a federally funded interstate.

[arcticbull]

Of course they should be in prison, but the goal is also to stop them from doing this in the future, which is easily achievable be eliminating their incentive. They're not going to do it just for the money if they don't get any of it. Once there's no incentive, jail the rest.

> It's not our responsibility to fund every bumblefuck police force with a staff of 5 in a town with a population of 500. They shouldn't even have jurisdiction on a federally funded interstate.

Either fund it or shut it down. Either is fine with me. It's the extant-but-unfunded middle ground that's obviously broken.

[kickout]

I think it's simply a matter of bad incentives. Cops get to keep 50% (or some number) of what they seize? A bunch of anonymous people driving through with no ties to the community? Open season is the prevailing thought.

Don't know where you put seized assets though because it gets sticky wherever they go.

[sowbug]

They should be required to burn the cash publicly. Serves the purpose of deterring those awful, awful drug dealers they've been letting go. And it also removes the incentive to, you know, steal cash from innocent people.

(But they should remain legally liable for returning the money if/when the legal process says so.)

[Buttons840]

Do they have warrants to search to vehicles, or do they trick people into agreeing to the search? Or maybe they have a dog that does something like breathe near the vehicle, which is clearly cause for suspicion (\s)?

[raincom]

They use legally sanctioned loopholes wrt fourth amendment: four legged warrants = dog sniff

[kickout]

All of the above. Id say >90% don't have a warrant and make up some weak PC (the mentioned air freshener in rear view mirror is popular).

[boomboomsubban]

The case in the story had the officers request a search, which was denied, then bring in a drug dog that responded despite no drugs being found.

[WatchDog]

I imagine most people consent to a search, and they do the dog trick to search those that don’t.