Do exigent circumstances apply to an entire neighborhood? I know to get a warrant, the places to be searched are VERY specific. I would not give up a little liberty, personally, though to word it "to make sure a killer is caught" doesn't seem to exactly apply to this situation. My dogs and I would know if he was in my house.
I'm not sure how the exigent circumstances stuff gets laid down.
Nothing like this had really been done before on this kind of scale. It was a very shoot from the hip and do the best you can type of deal.
Things could have certainly been done differently in some aspects, but in a fast evolving situation like this, snap decisions can go right or wrong in a hurry.
The man who's boat he was in had no clue or hint the suspect was hiding in his boat, much less his backyard. Until they could go outside again and he noticed something was up with his boat tarp. The guy could have been anywhere.
I'm sure a lot will be learned from with this event.
As of right now, there are at least two homeland security tactical evaluations taking place next week. The main goal of the evaluations is how better prepare officers so some of the missteps are never made again. Mini-briefings have gone on daily since it happened.
I guess it's my training and background in threat response that is keeping me from getting too riled up about this.
I do not, for one second, think it was handled perfectly. There were certainly missteps, but given that this was a search on an unprecedented scale, I'm willing to give them a little learning curve room.
No civilians were hurt or shot. Policy and procedures will be addressed and changed. The crude approach will probably not happen again.
This will not set a precedence for random knock down the door searches. There is no way that would ever fly with the American people.
I'm fairly certain the difference in opinions comes from my threat assessment and response training, it's what I do as part of my career. I know how hard it is to try and do what they did up there. I am willing to bet my entire snake collection that those police officers truly only had the public's best interest at heart. Emotions ran high on all sides because of what the suspects were accused of. That manifested itself in some bad ways, and officers need to be better trained on how to deal with these situations.
I do not believe for one second those officers were using those searches for nefarious purposes. Those people are their neighbors, fellow church goers, relatives, community members and friends. Some just got too carried away when the emotions ran high, and that needs to, and will be addressed, I'm certain of it.
This was something that had never been done on this kind of scale before. There will training and evaluations of this event for years and years to come.
