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April 13, 2005
"No Cause" Consent Searches Debated
Texas Senator Juan Hinojosa, D-Mission, submitted a criminal justice reform bill which was debated this week. SB1195, would ban "no cause" consent searches, calling them a "waste of law enforcement time" and ineffective as in "a vast majority of routine traffic stops, officers found nothing that could lead to an arrest."
Hinojosa debated his side of the argument well, citing a study that found that only 2% of drivers stopped by the police had even been asked for permission to search their vehicles. According to the Statesman, officers now can search without probable cause or a warrant if given permission. Hinojosa said even though citizens have the right to refuse such a request, they still can be arrested even if they were stopped for an offense that does not carry a jail sentence.
Speaking against the bill was the Texas Municipal Police Association, who felt that criminal investigations would be hampered if these searches were outlawed. Within the various media articles on this bill, there was no mention of statistics regarding how effective their "no cause" searches were in conducting investigations.
CJ Committee chief Sen. John Whitmire called the group of supporters of the bill, "a strange coalition." The Texas ACLU and the NRA came out in support of Hinojosa's bill. Will Harrell, Texas executive director of the ACLU, said four states — Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey and Rhode Island — and the California Highway Patrol have outlawed consent searches without experiencing an increase in crime.
Hinojosa cited Austin PDs policy of written consent searches. Since it was enacted, consent searches have decreased 60%. So, that may show that when actually told of their rights, citizens are increasingly making the decision to not allow searches.
There's no doubt that our police departments require the necessary resources to fight real crime in our cities, and our elected officials--state and federal--should be fighting for every single cent possible that will provide our police officers the equipment and resources to effectively fight crime. But "no-cause" consent searches have been proven ineffective, and with the issue of racial profiling still not having been resolved, it would be best to do away with consent searches to ensure that individual rights and liberties are kept safe.
Posted by Stace Medellin at April 13, 2005 12:11 PM | Permalink
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Comments
I know if you start stripping tools away from Law Enforcement then the criminals will win the war.
you had better triple dead bolt your doors..The criminals just won the war on drugs if the liberals keep getting laws passed that tie law enforcements hands. as a matter of fact several homicides have been cleared as a result of consent searches. The bodies where found in the trunks of cars..
Posted by: John Smith at April 17, 2005 05:56 PM