GhostRider66
Member
Okay so last night an old COPS episode comes on and it begins with a standard briefing at the beginning of the shift. They talk about bringing the SWAT team, several uniformed officers and plainclothes and how the search will proceed. They all begin to caravan to the target location and the senior person is talking about how they have to do this at this particular location (a local motel) every couple of months.
They arrive at the motel and there are a few sundry types in the parking lot. These people are immediately put on the ground by a few officers and the rest proceed inside. The motel is a two-story place with all of the rooms facing the interior hallways. The teams (they have a warrant they say) then proceed through the motel kicking doors in, rousting those inside, cuffing them and making them sit in the hallways while they proceed to search the rooms. Now the place is definitely seedy and they do wind up finding about four or five handguns (mostly cheapies - one was a .45 hi-point) and one shotgun and of course drugs.
My question is, how legal is this? Can you get a warrant to search a building, business or otherwise where the rooms are rented out to other people? Interesting part to me was some of the people being arrested were saying that some of the drugs found in the ceiling were not theirs. Judging by the motel, I could see how that could be possible.
They arrive at the motel and there are a few sundry types in the parking lot. These people are immediately put on the ground by a few officers and the rest proceed inside. The motel is a two-story place with all of the rooms facing the interior hallways. The teams (they have a warrant they say) then proceed through the motel kicking doors in, rousting those inside, cuffing them and making them sit in the hallways while they proceed to search the rooms. Now the place is definitely seedy and they do wind up finding about four or five handguns (mostly cheapies - one was a .45 hi-point) and one shotgun and of course drugs.
My question is, how legal is this? Can you get a warrant to search a building, business or otherwise where the rooms are rented out to other people? Interesting part to me was some of the people being arrested were saying that some of the drugs found in the ceiling were not theirs. Judging by the motel, I could see how that could be possible.