And this is supposed to be a surprise? I've worked in law enforcement for 21 years. Any 5-year officer could have told you that misuses were going to happen. It doesn't matter one bit what the agency's official policies are. What it boils down to is that individual officers make decisions to take particular actions - sometimes in good faith and sometimes in not so good faith. The fact that policies are in place is not so much to "discourage" officers from using the powers they have been given, but to encourage them to use discretion when using them...and to allow the brass and politicians to lay blame on someone else when the crap hits the fan.

If you give a kid a gun, at some point - by accident or by design - somebody is gonna get shot.

[ reply ]

Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/articles/1105/16770#16770