Police use doorknob swabs to detect guns, drugs in homes

[HighVelocity]

If they can swab the door knob whenever they feel like it, what's to stop them from swabbing the door handles of vehicles?
Swab picks up traces of drugs or gun powder on the door handle of your truck and when you come out your truck is gone (towed away) and you are arrested.

Then upon reviewing parking lot (if they did get reviewed at all) surveilance tapes, a couple of BG's are seen checking door handles looking for unlocked cars.
You're innocent of any wrongdoing but since joe crackhead was grabbing your door handles, you're in hot water.

 

[torpid]

What, were the occupants too cheap to spring for retinal-scan doors?

 

[CAS700850]

My take on all of this is that by actually obtaining a sample, the officers have committed a search. Problem is, to do a search, you need probable cause and (in most cases) a warrant. The dog cases, the "plain view" cases, and even the enhanced "plain view" cases all allow for an officer to either make a detection with having to take a bit and go to the lab. Hence "plain view" really means plain view. All teh enhanced plain view cases did was allow things like binoculars to enhance the plain view. When officers got creative (infrared imagery) it got shot down as a search, violating the expectation of privacy in the home.

Here, you need to take a sample and run it through a machine to get a result. Duh, not real "plain" is it?

Here's another thought I didn't see explored. So the knob has traces of (whatever). THat just means that someone with (whatever) on his or her hands has touched the knob. How does this mean that probable cause exists to believe that (whatever) is currently inside the house?

Nah, this one was doomed from the get-go. Imagine my delight when I saw that the judge agreed, and surpressed the evidence.

 

[DrDremel]

Sounds to me like somebody should pay a crackhead to wipe his hands over the cops doorknobs then have the sherrif get a warrant for the cop's house. Maybe that would change their minds. Or have a defendants attorney find traces on a cops houses doorknob. I think a jury would be interested to find that the very item that was cause for suspicion is on the doorknob of the cop, or better yet, the prosecutor. What about a thief checking the front door of every house to see if it is locked? They could very well have a drug habit of their own.

 

[GhostRider66]

I wonder if they could still get the warrant if it just tested positive for coffee?

But really it just does seem a bit like talking out of both sides of your mouth. On the one hand, they are making the assertion that the area being tested is publicly accessible and therefore they should be able to use it to obtain the warrant but on the other hand they are claiming that the area is not publicly accessible enough to figure that anyone but the owner must have placed the evidence there. Sounds like you could argue this one forever. :banghead:

 

[javafiend]

It's one more invasion of privacy by the state. We may not be a police state, but we sure are headed that way. See The State vs. The People: The Emergence of the American Police State by Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman.

 

[fjolnirsson]

Good to hear the judge in the case had some not so common sense, and threw the doorknob wipings out.
These days, I'm glad to see a victory for our side.

 

[DMF]

All other arguments aside, those of you who are whining about trespassing should really do some serious research into the subject. Sometimes the wildly ignorant claims made here are truly hilarious.

 

[thorn726]

from the 60s

Prediction: If this is upheld, expect druggies and such to start dusting large numbers of doorknobs with their product. Mayor, police officials, DA . . .

exactly- anyone remember the song, there was this line-

"doorhandles of cop cars with lsd and dmso!"

(a little dmso makes anything go right thru the skin.) this is insane intrusion. those cops deserve big trouble

Sounds to me like somebody should pay a crackhead to wipe his hands over the cops doorknobs then have the sherrif get a warrant for the cop's house.

REALLY- more importantaly, that rasies the question = how hard would it be to set up endless numbers of people, how many will be searched because their neighbor, repairman, passer-by touched their door

 

[Logistics]

>>>All other arguments aside, those of you who are whining about trespassing should really do some serious research into the subject. Sometimes the wildly ignorant claims made here are truly hilarious.<<<

Maybe instead you just have a level of groupthink with your comrads thats out of step with what our forefathers had intended.

Trespassing sign or no trespassing sign or whatever the hell ways you want to missconstrue things too your advantage is truly irrelavant. The guy is a CITIZEN, he pays taxes and he SHOULDEN'T need a "get the hell back sign" on his property to ward off annoyances like this. What a *complete* waste of our judicial system and tax dollars just to help save the childeren.....This USED to be AMERICA......

I love how some of you feel so proud when violating the rights of others just to keep a lil warm puddin in your tummy.....I wonder what would happen in todays day and age if James Madison were alive and you were swabbing his doorknob.......I do believe you would have a musket directly up your collective arses...

But yes I DO know.......it's all for the childeren.....

 

[Flyboy]

All other arguments aside, those of you who are whining about trespassing should really do some serious research into the subject.

And therein lies the problem. Everybody knows what "trespassing" means; it's only the legal system that has given us these cocked-up definitions that allow the State to encroach further and further upon our essential liberties.

As somebody else so eloquently phrased it, my rights don't need interpretation.

 

[Logistics]

>>>
And therein lies the problem. Everybody knows what "trespassing" means; it's only the legal system that has given us these cocked-up definitions that allow the State to encroach further and further upon our essential liberties.

As somebody else so eloquently phrased it, my rights don't need interpretation.
<<<<

AMEN!!!! Someone else who "gets it".....

 

[Warren]

First let me say that I agree that the War on Some Drugs is UnAmerican and just really stupid but I would like to point out that there is no way cops are just going to go around swabbing things.

No department has the resources to do that nor would they want to handle the all the negative media that would surround their efforts.

In order to get swabbed you have to come to their notice first.

Which is not to say a corrupt cop would not set you up somehow. But it is unlikely that someone who is not a player in the illegal weapons and drugs trade would ever get swabbed.

And these plans to set up local gov-flunkies for a swabbing won't work unless said flunkies are already being investigated.

So while this swabbing thing does truely suck it is not anywhere near being a major issue.

 

[Car Knocker]

No department has the resources to do that nor would they want to handle the all the negative media that would surround their efforts.

But there is no reason that the police couldn't outsource swabbing. Many cities contract parking enforcement via private companies that "boot" vehicles and "photocop" devices (provided by private companies) to provide traffic enforcement. We have prisons run by corporations and traffic safety classes run by corporations. The precedents are already in place.

 

[Warren]

That would still cost a lot of money and would still lead to a huge public outcry.

It would take a few more years of "its for the children" and "what do you have to hide" type rhetoric to even get this going in some of the more law-uptight areas. These are areas where people think that in order to be a good person you have to support the law regardles of what the law is.

Forget this ever happening in a lefty-hippie dominated area or even one with good number of such.

They are exactly the sort that would lead the fight against such a thing.