Supreme Court Grants Review on GPS Monitoring Cases

The Supreme Court granted Certiorari in United States v. Jones (Docket: 10-1259) this morning. The issues presented are as follows:

1)Whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on petitioner’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment.
2) Whether the government violated the respondent’s Fourth Amendment rights by installing the tracking device without a valid warrant and without his consent.

The issue is perhaps the most important privacy/Fourth Amendment case since the Katz decision involving telephones. GPS trackers have become a prevalent law enforcement tool that not only allows the police to track movements of a person, but construct meaning from those movements. Stay tuned.

Interesting Article Life as Undocumented Immigrant

Recently, the New York Times had an interesting article authored by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas where he admitted that he is an undocumented immigrant. His article highlights the plight of as many as eleven million illegal residents living in the United States. The article details Mr. Vargas's arrival in the United States, experiences in school as a non-native English speaker, and his experiences living undocumented. It is worth a read for those doing immigration work.

criminal court arraignment

Public Defender

FBI's New Rules to Give Agents More Leeway on Surveillance

From FoxNews.com:

The FBI sought Monday to downplay its expanded surveillance powers for agents as civil liberty groups sounded an alarm that the new rules not only make it easier for agents to investigate suspects but give them startling leeway to spy on ordinary Americans.

The changes are expected to be outlined in a new edition of the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, a lengthy 2008 document detailing how far agents can go in tracking suspects. They will expand the use of techniques ranging from dispatching surveillance teams to digging through trash cans.

Civil liberties groups were briefed on the policy changes in May, and came out of the meeting worried the changes would allow agents to investigate innocent people, with less oversight than before.

"It's the government saying we can know all about your private life, but you can't know what the government is doing," Michael German, a former FBI agent now working with the American Civil Liberties Union, told FoxNews.com.

For instance, the new rules would allow agents to look up people on various databases without opening up a low-level inquiry known as an "assessment." Currently, agents have to take that formal step before looking into someone's background and provide some semblance of justification.

Full article can be found here.

Jose Guerena SWAT Raid Video From Helmet Cam

Interviewing Witnesses

From: John E. Reid & Associates, Inc.

 

A witness is anyone who possesses direct information pertinent to an investigation. Developing accurate and complete information from witnesses is critical to any criminal investigation. This information may determine whether or not a crime was committed, the direction in which an investigation goes and the identification of the perpetrator of a crime.

 

Sometimes witnesses are forthcoming and fully cooperative, other times they are reluctant to get involved and occasionally they are deceitful in an effort to protect themselves, an accomplice or loved one. There are many factors that may influence the accuracy of a witness' statement including trauma, passage of time, prejudices, influences of drugs or alcohol, age, and psychological/ physiological disorders. Finally, witnesses are interviewed in a number of different settings, ranging from a totally uncontrolled setting (outside a bank that was just robbed) to a semi-controlled environment (the witness' home or office) or in a controlled setting (the investigator's office).

 

With all these variables, obviously there is no single best technique to develop information from a witness; there is, however, a single underlying principle that does apply. This web tip will present a number of different concepts relating to witness interviews which investigators need to appropriately apply.

 

Continue reading for more 'Interviewing Witnesses' information as well as answers to the following questions.

 

1. How can an investigator identify a good witness within a group of people?
2. Three individuals witnessed the same incident, what important procedure should the investigator use when interviewing these witnesses?
3. When, during an interview, should the investigator elicit personal information from a witness?
4. What are some simple techniques the investigator can use to enhance a witness' memory?

New Misconduct Allegations Against San Francisco Police as 26 Cases Dropped

Twenty-six felony cases have been dismissed by San Francisco Prosecutors that involve misconduct allegations against the San Francisco Police Department. All 26 cases that were dropped on May 27, 2011, involve Mission Station officers that are currently under investigation for illegal searches, perjury, and theft.

At a news conference, San Francisco Jeff Adachi showed surveillance footage of an April 22, 2010 arrest that stood in sharp contrast to the sworn police report describing the incident. (more here)

In that case, police arrested 49-year-old Jesus Inastrilla in front of a Tenderloin bar for drug sales. In a sworn police report, Officer Peter Richardson wrote that officers Jacob Fegan, Ricardo Guerrero, Robert Sanchez, who were working undercover, arrested Inastrilla after Inastrilla spit a crack rock into his hand to sell it to Guerrero. However, the video shows no exchange between the two men. One of Inastrilla’s hands remains on his cell phone throughout the video, while his other hand is in his pocket.

Charges were dropped against Inastrilla May 7, 2010 after Guerrero claimed he could not find the alleged seized drugs in evidence, according to Inastrilla’s attorney, Erica Franklin. Franklin later lodged a complaint with the Office of Citizen Complaints on behalf of her client. The OCC also found that the video was inconsistent with the police report.

In a second case of possible misconduct revealed Friday, Mission District residents Javier and Mariette Tenorio produced a sworn declaration against Sgt. Kevin Healy, Sanchez, Guerrero, Fegan and Richardson, alleging police illegally searched their residence and left with their valuables.