What the heck is going on around here? I have been working round the clock the past couple of days and come back to this mess. The irony of this is that I was executing search warrants.
Terraformer,
Thank you for taking the time to point out the specific issues that you have with this without contributing any of the anti-LEO rhetoric.
I will attempt to address some of the issues that you brought up.
We do not know the complete story but there does not seem to be much disagreement over what had happened. The big question surrounds the "announcement".
Several issues come to light with this. Without knowing the specifics of this particular investigation. We do not know what information that they had which led to the issuance of the search warrant. Many times in investigations the
only evidence that can be used against the defendant is any evidence that is recovered in his/her possession from inside of the residence.
The catch is that..depending upon the house/investigation...the only way to prove possession by the defendant is to have him/her present in the house with the illegal items at the time/execution of the warrant.
Executing the warrant when no one is home is fruitless (depending upon the individual investigation).
History/experience shows that early morning gives the highest probability of a lower occupancy rate.
It also gives the
least probability of confrontation and is well documented in that. Although this incident was the exception to the rule.
Actually as I just stated. Early morning raids have been documented to be less confrontational. The irony is that the reasons that those who are posting here state they are too dangerous are the same reasons that they are the safest.
There are generally less occupants. They are generally asleep, which gives the element of surprise and if done correctly the residents/occupants do not have time to formulate defensive measures.
In the case of drug investigations. The worst times to execute are during the day and early night when they are actively involved in dealing/consuming the drugs and where there may be many armed individuals (other dealers/customers) who are high on crack. This is far more dangerous to
everyone
Enough to implicate..... maybe not enough to arrest or convict
Again...potential legal issues surrounding possession as well as potential car chase, foot chase and or shootout outside of the home where there is more potential for innocent victims to be harmed. They would have to still search the house with potentially others inside.
We do not know her involvement so I cannot comment but if there was an indication that she was involved there is a likelihood that they wanted her there as well for
prosecutorial purposes.
I have been involved in hundreds of these raids at a local, state and federal level.
All circumstances/situations and scenarios are considered prior to even obtaining a search warrant.
There are always discussions about balancing the needs of the investigation versus the wants of the investigation.
The question of whether to execute the search warrant at various times compared to arresting on the street and subsequently searching the house when empty are always considered.
One of the most personally disturbing and difficult parts of my job are the execution of search warrants on homes with children, particularly young children. I always picture my own children lying in bed asleep and the emotional trauma that they would be going through if they were in the home during such raid.
But the sad reality is that a job needs to be done and the police should not be blamed for it..the parents that put them in that position are to be blamed.
In the situation of children my unit ALWAYS uses the utmost discretion/sensitivity and probably sacrifices cases at that expense. There are many times we fail to search rooms where young children are asleep so as not to disturb them. Many times we later learn that the drugs were store in the kids rooms out of hopes we would not search there.
No LEO wants to have
anyone get hurt in a search warrant and great pains are taken to prevent this but unfortunately you cannot predict, plan or train for the human element.
R.I.P. Agent as everyone involved in this tradgedy will carry your loss forever.