[bharris]

In the article, the police claimed to have tried all other methods of 'traditional' policing before resorting to the truck:

"In the summer of 2006, police were brainstorming ways to rattle a suspected drug dealer. They had exhausted traditional strategies, including undercover operations, and were left empty-handed and frustrated. They decided to park a retired police car in front of the suspect's house."

[chrischen]

That's how the idea started. Afterwards they used it to scare off the lady's grandchildren when she went on vacation.

[nonrecursive]

I don't see what's wrong with asking the police to help protect your house from vandalism, even if you are on vacation. The kind of behavior this old lady's kids were engaged in was illegal, and the police helped solve the problem in a cost-effective way. Where's the problem?

[chrischen]

The problem is that it went from extreme no-other-solution necessity to a more mundane use. In other words we get too comfortable with it and pretty soon they could be monitoring everyone. It's not a slippery slope. It's just natural progression.

[jsteele]

You made a typo: Please change "monitoring" to "tasering".