You can just see the 4th amendment falling.

[Vernal45]

TheWBALChannel.com
Police HEAT Unit Turns Up Heat On Drug Traffickers
Unit Uses High-Tech, Aggressive Methods To Fight War On Drugs

POSTED: 6:25 pm EDT July 6, 2005
UPDATED: 7:01 pm EDT July 6, 2005

BALTIMORE -- Police are turning up the heat on drug traffickers traveling through Maryland.

MdTA Police recover more than $300,000 in a drug bust using a specialized 'HEAT' unit.
WBAL-TV 11 News reporter David Collins reported the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department's new crime-fighting unit, called the Homeland Enforcement and Traffic (HEAT) Unit, has netted significant results.

Since 2002, the HEAT Unit has doubled the number of drugs uncovered in vehicles during traffic stops and three times as many guns.

Collins reported 14 highly-trained officers comprise the unit, along with 15 drug and explosive sniffing dogs. The unit employs the use of state-of-the-art technology in a numbers strategy to compete in a high stakes game of hide and seek of sorts.

"The more contacts we are able to make, ultimately the more seizures we are able to make," MdTA Police Sgt. Kevin Anderson said.

Collins said the department's aggressive traffic enforcement along Maryland's bridges, tunnels and highways has chalked up huge victories in the war on drugs.

"We've been able to seize several kilos of cocaine, several pounds of marijuana, several firearms," Anderson said.

In one van alone, the unit discovered more than $363,000 in cash in addition to handguns, Ecstasy and marijuana -- much of it stashed in a hidden compartment.

Video

David Collins Reports: HEAT Unit Uses High-Tech To Fight Crime
According to police, the Interstate 95 corridor has turned into the drug route of choice between New York and Miami since the enhancement of airport security after Sept. 11, 2001.

In response, the HEAT Unit hopes to make Baltimore a choke point along I-95. Drug money confiscated by the HEAT Unit has paid for fast cars used in the department's operation. The vehicles, including Ford Mustangs, are equipped with a built-in video camera to record each traffic stop.

HEAT Unit vehicles also come equipped with a computer that interfaces with other law enforcement agencies, including the Pentagon. As a result, Collins said officers no longer have to radio information to a dispatcher. Instead, they can punch it up themselves online in a matter of seconds.

"It gives us the ability to run timely information on vehicle registration, driver's licenses (and) wanted checks," Anderson said.

Collins said the HEAT Unit is a product of its own success. According to state officials, other local police departments are now looking at the heat team as a model for their jurisdictions.
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4691371/detail.html?subid=22100764&qs=1;bp=t

 

[BostonGeorge]

How can pulling over cars and searching them be described as using "state-of-the-art technology in a number strategy?" Sounds more like they're using "state-of-the-art strategies of civil rights violations" to me.

 

[Risasi]

It's a good thing the bad guys aren't a little more proactive. If I had chosen Drug Running as a career and had to deal with this, I think I would be wiring up explosives inside the vehicles. Wait for them to pull me over. Get out and move waaay away from the car and detonate.

Of course I would need an accomplice on motorbike, etc. for fast getaway.

Either I wouldn't last long or they would have to be MUCH more cautious pulling people over.

 

[nico]

just another example of why you should never consent to any search.

 

[captain obvious]

You'd think that such people would learn not to use interstates - its rather tough to avoid cops on those roads while merely traveling, let alone while traveling hot (especially the western Maryland part of I-68, which, for having so few people has more tax collect, I mean highway cops than I have ever seen ).

 

[Pilgrim]

It's a good thing the bad guys aren't a little more proactive. If I had chosen Drug Running as a career and had to deal with this, I think I would be wiring up explosives inside the vehicles. Wait for them to pull me over. Get out and move waaay away from the car and detonate.

Of course I would need an accomplice on motorbike, etc. for fast getaway.

The other alternative is to have the druggies running armed escorts for the drug haulers.

Pilgrim

 

[Zrex]

We still have a 4th amendment?



(sorry, is this getting old?)

 

[taliv]

other law enforcement agencies, including the Pentagon.

uhh, hello?

 

[Standing Wolf]

...the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Department's new crime-fighting unit, called the Homeland Enforcement and Traffic (HEAT) Unit, has netted significant results.

More acronym abominations in the famous war against selected drugs.

 

[geekWithA.45]

I Run The 95 Corridor Every Week...

From Phl To The VA line just past DC.

The MD cops are as bad as the Jersey cops, in that you see them every 5 miles or so on average.

The lazy SOBs won't even get in their cars and chase you, they just wave at you from the roadside.


But that's another story.

I've seen the guys mentioned in this story at work every other week.

You can tell: There's at least 3, and sometimes 5 marked state patrol cars in full "felony stop" formation, and usually a big black suburban or two.

Of the dozen or so times I've seen this:

The cars are upscale: Benz, Lexus, Beamers
The drivers are downscale: 20 something minority males
The location is 10 out of 12 times SOUTHBOUND. This fact inspires me to CALL BS on the "Miami-->NYC Drug Corridor" theory.

The choke point they usually use is a 5 mile strip just south of the Susquehanna River Bridge. My guess is that they're stationed in the admin/truck inspection point just north of the bridge.

 

[BostonGeorge]

The cars are upscale: Benz, Lexus, Beamers
The drivers are downscale: 20 something minority males
The location is 10 out of 12 times SOUTHBOUND. This fact inspires me to CALL BS on the "Miami-->NYC Drug Corridor" theory.

They're just after the cash. You can't buy equipment with kilos of cocaine.

"Remember kids, just say YES to drugs so we can get a new squad car"

 

[rhubarb]

Police recovered more than $300,000? What, was it theirs to begin with?

from http://dictionary.com:

re·cov·er
v. tr.
1. To get back; regain.
2. To restore (oneself) to a normal state
3. To compensate for: She recovered her losses.
4. To procure (usable substances, such as metal) from unusable substances,
such as ore or waste.
5. To bring under observation again
v. intr.
1. To regain a normal or usual condition, as of health.
2. To receive a favorable judgment in a lawsuit.

I've seen this word a lot in reference to these un-Constitutional seizures. Unless the LEAs around the country are up to their culos in aiding and abetting drug dealers/smugglers, recover doesn't apply. Took would be a fairly neutral word that would apply. Ripped off would be good. Stoled would work in some parts of the country. Horn-swaggled? Not recover.

In the outside chance that these criminals from whom the money and cars were "recovered" tried to "recover" their legally owned possessions, they would be told to get lost.


Edited to add:
When I used to cross the bridge back and forth from Mexico daily, I got to thinking one day as I sat watching the infallible drug-sniffing dogs walking around every car. What if the drug runners were to spill some of their product on the bridge or on the roadway a bit farther north approaching one of the checkpoints? Drug sniffing dogs would not only be useless, they'd be high. What, you gonna shut down the borders by searching every stinkin car for a little drugs? You ain't done it to stop terrism.

 

[Henry Bowman]

rhubarb -- See def. #4:

4. To procure (usable substances, such as metal) from unusable substances, such as ore or waste.

$$ = usable substance; $$ in hands of serfs = waste

 

[rick_reno]

Who needs the 4th Admendment? I don't have anything to hide. I get a little tense about body cavity searches, but anything else is ok.
They've done a good job at gutting the 4th - the 1st is pretty much dead too. When will they set their sights on the 2nd? I predict it's coming, and it'll be sooner than we think.

 

[another okie]

Well, we've still got the Third Amendment.
Our new motto: "Keeping soldiers out of our homes since 1789."

 

[middy]

When will they set their sights on the 2nd?

Oh, about 1792...

 

[dolanp]

The cops are just as addicted to drug money as the drug runners themselves.

 

[Aguila Blanca]

HEAT Unit vehicles also come equipped with a computer that interfaces with other law enforcement agencies, including the Pentagon.

I zeroed in on this, too. I'm surprised only one other person commented on it.

Since when is the Pentagon a "law enforcement agency"? Whatever happened to posse commitatus?

 

[JohnBT]

""We've been able to seize several kilos of cocaine, several pounds of marijuana, several firearms," Anderson said."

Let's see, there's the expense of "...14 highly-trained officers comprise the unit, along with 15 drug and explosive sniffing dogs..." plus the hi-tech equipment, etc.

If the goal was to keep the drugs off the street it would have been cheaper just to buy them.

John

 

[publius]

If the goal was to keep the drugs off the street it would have been cheaper just to buy them.

And equally effective, at that goal anyway. It would cut down on the fancy new cars and stuff, though, if the drug war were not treated as a profit center for government.

 

[publius]

Since when is the Pentagon a "law enforcement agency"? Whatever happened to posse commitatus?

To the first question, since at least 1983, and to the second, another casualty of the drug war.

...the USS Kidd intercepted a drug-smuggling boat in 1983. When the smugglers refused to yield without force, the problem of passive versus active law enforcement was handled by lowering the Navy ensign on the ship and raising the Coast Guard ensign. The Coast Guard asset USS Kidd then fired on the smugglers’ ship, rendering it immobile and leading to its seizure, along with 900 bales of marijuana.