CRIME idea to help police respond to life-threatening abductions more e ffectively

From: Tao, Greg (greg.tao@private)
Date: Mon Aug 26 2002 - 12:32:27 PDT

  • Next message: Gunderson_Dane: "RE: CRIME idea to help police respond to life-threatening abducti ons more e ffectively"

    Hello,
    
    This is only partially off-topic.  While it is not a computer-related
    matter, our group has a lot of law enforcement and criminal prosecution
    experience, so I figure this is about as good a place as any to float this
    idea.  Let me know what you think of it...
    
    
    MOTIVATION
    Maybe some good can come out of the deaths of Ashley Pond and Miranda
    Gaddis, the 2 Oregon City girls whose bodies have been found on the property
    previously occupied by Ward Weaver.  I have long believed that too often our
    laws or the courts' interpretation of the laws does not allow for common
    sense measures that could increase public safety while not infringing on our
    Constitutional rights.
    
    PROBLEM STATEMENT
    When responding to abductions/disappearances, law enforcement is hindered by
    the stringent requirements for getting search warrants.  Today, law
    enforcement needs to convince a judge that probable cause for search exists.
    It's something along the lines that you have to explain why you think the
    person who is the target of the warrant is somehow involved, what you are
    going to search, and what you expect to find.
    
    PROPOSAL
    Change the law to allow quicker and more flexible searches of people and
    property in cases where a person's life may be at risk (e.g. abduction or
    disappearance of a child).  This change in the law would in effect create a
    standing search warrant to look for a missing person at any location of
    interest to law enforcement.  Law enforcement would be authorized to search
    any part of the property where a human body could be hidden (e.g. crawl
    space), using reasonable search tools and methods (e.g. dogs trained to
    locate human beings or bodies based on a scent provided to them prior to the
    commencement of the search).  In the case of e-mail, law enforcement would
    be authorized to request from the victim's ISP access to email and relevant
    logs going back as far as needed for the purpose of aiding in the
    identification of potential persons of interest and material witnesses.
    
    WOULD A CHANGE IN THE LAW LIKE THIS HAVE SAVED LIVES IN THE OREGON CITY
    CASE?
    Who knows.  Hindsight is 20/20, but the proposed change would have provided
    the opportunity to search the residences and vehicles of all persons with
    whom Ashley Pond was known to associate.  Crimes of this nature have been
    shown time and time again to involve persons known to the victim, usually
    within close proximity.  It is possible that early action might have
    prevented her murder, or resulted in the apprehension of the perpetrator
    shortly after the fact, thus preventing the murder of Miranda Gaddis.  This
    is all speculation, but it is based on common sense.
    
    RATIONALE FOR THE PROPOSAL - WHY THE BENEFITS OUTWEIGH THE COSTS
    This proposal is based on common sense.  If a house is burning down, firemen
    don't ask permission to enter and save lives. They just enter and save
    lives, cutting through walls if necessary.  If we as a society want to get
    serious about protecting our children and getting criminals off the street,
    we need to get past the over-simplification of the 4th Amendment to the
    Constitution.  We don't, after all, consider firemen in violation of civil
    rights when they rush into a burning building to save lives.  Likewise, law
    enforcement must be liberated to be able to conduct reasonable searches of
    places of interest in a timely manner when life is on the line and minutes
    count.  While there are usually no raging fires in cases of abductions,
    there is always a group of individuals that the victim knew, some of which
    may be of more interest than others due to things like past accusations of
    inappropriate sexual contact.  Though personal associations are more subtle
    than a burning building, they are nevertheless most always connected to
    abductions that result in murder.
    
    
    I welcome your feedback, including any tips about how to get this idea
    refined and submitted for consideration by the US Justice Department, the
    Oregon State Legislature, or the Oregon voters.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Greg Tao
    greg.tao@private
    Disclaimer: These are my personal views and opinions, not the views and
    opinions of my employer.
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon Aug 26 2002 - 13:35:47 PDT