Police raids gone wrong study

[Jason McCullough]

From Cato (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/53069), so who knows how reliable it is.

The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home. These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects.
This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.

The interactive map (http://www.cato.org/raidmap/) is a very good bit of PR.

[Guido Jones]

Go North Dakota?

[bago]

Balko kicks ass. Remember this study is just what he's been able to dig up in the media. Comprehensive records of police misconduct are not kept by most police precincts.

[Arbit]

Philip Petronella.

Five state police officers in masks, bulletbroof vests, and donning assault weapons break into the home of Philip Petronella as he's watching television. Though the front door is unlocked, the break it down anyway. They handcoff Petronella, and sit him on the couch while they rifle through his belongings.

The search goes on for hours. Police finally reveal to Petronella, a 63-year-old retiree, that they believe his home is being used for prostitution. "I told them, 'You gotta be kidding. I ain't getting any. Nobody else is getting any out of here,'" Petronella told a local newspaper.

Police later realize that the suspects they were looking for had moved out months earlier.
It's like a real-life episode of Reno 911.

[MatthewF]

That map is some pretty sick stuff. I could read it for hours.

edit: it's absolutely amazing how many of those botched raids were executed on literally no evidence whatsoever. No-knock raids are scary enough, but when they have no idea whether their information is even true or not (or even if they're in the right apartment/house) that's downright horrific.

[bago]

I believe the supreme court noted it as "the drug war exception" to the 4th amendment.

[FIDGAF]

What's scary is I can't even really see my state because there's so many markers on it...

[Steve Canyon]

Yeah, I could read this stuff all day long. On the upside, thank god we are winning the war on drugs.

[skedastic]

Winning? The War on Drugs is over: we won (http://www.dispatch.com/editorials-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/06/30/20060630-A15-00.html)! As declared by completely impartial, expert sources -- Dr. Robert L. Du Pont, Dr. Peter G. Bourne, Lee I. Dogoloff, Dr. Donald Ian Mac-Donald, Lee Brown and retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey.

(Incidentally, Dr. John C. Burnham is a bit of a thicky.)

[bago]

Lets hope this gets some major media attention.

[jfletch]

One of these botched raids happened down the street from me. It really is something that can happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. And it can really foul up your life, whether its them shooting your dog (happens all the time) or you assuming criminals are attacking your home late at night and you end up hurting or killing an officer.

[FIDGAF]

Electrify the front porch at night, post a warning sign.

[Marcus]

whether its them shooting your dog (happens all the time)

Well if they kept the dog locked up it wouldnt be a problem!