Cops at front door
- Thread starter megahot
- Start date
Invite them over for a smokeout when your chilis are ready to pick - say you have some awesome pods to smoke!
That's unnerving. I would file a complaint if they did that to me then.
Edit:
One of the requirements is that the officer "must immediately recognize the item as evidence or contraband without making a further intrusion." So I don't think suspicion is enough.
armac,
an actual officer has to observe the illegal activity right? i remember my uncle complaining about how the police could not enter a house, after he called the police about some guy loudly beating his wife nextdoor.
seems like i also heard about police entering a house w/o a warrent after they heard a suspect destroying evidence? idk, that one might be twisted.
dulac,
i hoestly dont know what i would do if the police wanted to see my grow area, on the one hand i like the idea of excercising my rights... but on the other hand with warrent in hand i would imagine they would be alot more intrusive even if it were evident immediatly that the area in question was completely legal.
i dont know why i have not been visited yet...befor i had a tent, i had a 600w hps running with just window blinds and curtain infront of the window... needles to day the whole window glowed like the sun. that part of the house is not behind the fence however, so maby someone stoped by for a peek before informing the police.
an actual officer has to observe the illegal activity right? i remember my uncle complaining about how the police could not enter a house, after he called the police about some guy loudly beating his wife nextdoor.
seems like i also heard about police entering a house w/o a warrent after they heard a suspect destroying evidence? idk, that one might be twisted.
dulac,
i hoestly dont know what i would do if the police wanted to see my grow area, on the one hand i like the idea of excercising my rights... but on the other hand with warrent in hand i would imagine they would be alot more intrusive even if it were evident immediatly that the area in question was completely legal.
i dont know why i have not been visited yet...befor i had a tent, i had a 600w hps running with just window blinds and curtain infront of the window... needles to day the whole window glowed like the sun. that part of the house is not behind the fence however, so maby someone stoped by for a peek before informing the police.
In Texas, if an officer is in a public place, like a roadway, and he observes illegal, or possible illegal activity. He can enter a residence to protect the citizen from harm, or to prevent the citizen from destroying evidence. Once the citizen is safe, or the evidence secured, then they will get a warrant to search the rest of the house.
Plain sight search includes citizen safety and securing of evidence. Please do not rely on TV for your knowledge of law, there was nobody that cried louder than the "TV educated lawyers" we arrested. In their mind all their rights had been violated, they just had no idea what they were talking about.
Plain sight search includes citizen safety and securing of evidence. Please do not rely on TV for your knowledge of law, there was nobody that cried louder than the "TV educated lawyers" we arrested. In their mind all their rights had been violated, they just had no idea what they were talking about.
Here we go again...... I shouldn't have posted what happened..... however I am just going to say I think that the minute you say not without a warrant you have something to hide. Just saying cops get enough grief. They were just doing their job when they came to my house. I don't care.
It's funny when cops try to be proactive, observing circumstances and investigating, you hear, not without a warrant........when the same guy's house gets broke into, you hear, why aren't you in my neighborhood more?
You cannot win, the most vocal complainers are always the loudest whiners when crime comes to their door.........karma-like.
hh81 I would think you had some pretty decent officers looking over your neighborhood. They seen something, they investigated, they moved on....good job. You should feel safer at home with you new baby.
You cannot win, the most vocal complainers are always the loudest whiners when crime comes to their door.........karma-like.
hh81 I would think you had some pretty decent officers looking over your neighborhood. They seen something, they investigated, they moved on....good job. You should feel safer at home with you new baby.
Yep yep Meg. When I was younger I played that card during a traffic stop with nothing to hide. Added 1.5 hours to the stop while they got a warrant to search my car just because I wouldn't open the trunk and then they really looked. All was good, but it showed me no need to hide when there is nothing to be hidden.
Ooooh, good point Justy!
I'm kind of old-fashioned and still like to believe a good percentage of officers still opt to "serve & protect".
Then, there are the ones who got kicked around on the playground....and they still scare me. haha
I'm glad you posted your experience Megs! It had a happy ending....and I LOVE happy endings!!!!!
I'm kind of old-fashioned and still like to believe a good percentage of officers still opt to "serve & protect".
Then, there are the ones who got kicked around on the playground....and they still scare me. haha
I'm glad you posted your experience Megs! It had a happy ending....and I LOVE happy endings!!!!!
You can observe "possible illegal activity" everywhere you look. If you see a guy walking down the street, it's possible that he has a crack pipe in his pocket. That seems like a very lax interpretation, to say the least. I'm sure the courts would want some more specific and less ambiguous reason.
I have a lot of respect for police officers and am not anti-police by any means. Most police officers are good people, provide a necessary service, and are usually pretty reasonable. But it's just the principle of it. Having a grow light is not suspicion of any crime, period. That's like saying that owning a gun is suspicion of murder or armed robbery. So if a police officer wants to search my house because I have a grow light then I'm going to tell them to get a warrant because that's not a legitimate reason for a search. Law abiding citizens shouldn't be treated like criminals and have their houses searched without any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing.
Maybe Global Warming is going to have alot of people using grow lights more often! And then it won't seem so "suspicious" anymore!
Hey - an up-side to Global Warming! WHOOOOOT!!!!!!
Hey - an up-side to Global Warming! WHOOOOOT!!!!!!
Lights aren't illegal, so unless they can see actual pot plants through the window, no they do not have probable cause. I guess I'm glad I'm in farm country, so starting seedlings under grow lights in the spring isn't something odd. Always insist on a warrant. Some cops need to be reminded that we have a constitution that limits searches.
Yes, but like Justy said...unless you need some extra time for disposal, requesting a warrant will most likely just tie up hours of your life that you could spend doing something else.
I still vote, let 'em in, offer them a chile-infused doughnut, and make some new friends for the day! It makes for an excellent story to post!
I live in farm country too - where they don't even bother keeping the pot plants inside - just right outside with the tomatoes!!! Crazy!!!! hahahaha
I still vote, let 'em in, offer them a chile-infused doughnut, and make some new friends for the day! It makes for an excellent story to post!
I live in farm country too - where they don't even bother keeping the pot plants inside - just right outside with the tomatoes!!! Crazy!!!! hahahaha
To see an example of a cop who needs to be reminded of this, just scroll up a little. Everyone's guilty until proven innocent, just go ahead and waive your constitutional protection, armac needs to rummage through your private property to make sure you're not a criminal. He's here to "help."
I have nothing to hide. I just don't think the police should freely walk into your house for "suspicion." I've been harassed and helped out by police officers in my experience. The police are generally good but imo we need to have certain boundaries respected. I'm not the sort of person that is going to complain about where the police were when my neighbors get robbed. I expect them to investigate the robbery and come if someone reports a robbery in progress and that's it. I don't even expect them to catch the criminals every time either. Sometimes there isn't enough leads or evidence. Nobody knows who broke into my neighbor's car for example. Nobody blames the police for that. I blame the jerk that broke into his car. They work for us and their job is also to be respected (put their lives at risk and help us out). Officers that disrespect their profession should be reported.
I worry that they will be more intrusive as well. If they end up getting a warrant, I would be cooperative with them. I think it's worth suffering for your rights. We can only have them if we exercise them. If they damaged any of my property, I would file a complaint. There is no reason to damage a person's property who is innocent and complies with the the law. I have my lights and peppers in plain view. No cops have shown up here either. The cops here do their job well and seem not meddle into nonsense. One time my cousin and I drank too much (I don't drink often and got drunk on accident). We went up to a police officer on the sidewalk and asked him where we could find a hotel (we don't drive drunk) and he didn't arrest us for being drunk in public. We were not acting foolish but were clearly very drunk. I thought he was a security guard the whole time, lol. We ended up finding a hotel to spend the night in and drove the morning when we were sober. I don't think they care if you're drunk in that part of the city unless you are acting foolish. We were nice to him, but I bet if we disrespected him he would of arrested us.
They thought I had a crack pipe (at least what I think they thought) when it was just a pipe I made for tobacco. They were asking me stuff about cocaine. I like to make things if I can. Some nosy person reported me and they searched me and my friends. Then the asked us where we were going after they found nothing illegal. I didn't like that at all and think I should be able to go for a walk with my friends without being searched. They did the same thing again and told us they were searching us because a lot of cars have been reported stolen in the area we were in (none of us had cars back then) and searched us in front of everyone inside a video store that we walked to. The cops shouldn't be wasting their time doing things like this. I also had an officer claim my car smelled like pot (I never smoked pot in it and don't smoke pot). They called backup on me, told me a lot of drug dealers came from the apartment I lived in, and searched me and my vehicle while making me put my hands behind my back. They also yelled at me for making any slight movement. I couldn't even scratch my head in bemusement. After that experience, I decided to always make the police get a warrant. I tried the whole nothing to hide crap. They treated me like a criminal.
Edit again: I had moved to Virginia since those bad experiences and the police here seem much more relaxed. I've never given police an attitude or anything and tried my best to cooperate with them and be friendly.
I worry that they will be more intrusive as well. If they end up getting a warrant, I would be cooperative with them. I think it's worth suffering for your rights. We can only have them if we exercise them. If they damaged any of my property, I would file a complaint. There is no reason to damage a person's property who is innocent and complies with the the law. I have my lights and peppers in plain view. No cops have shown up here either. The cops here do their job well and seem not meddle into nonsense. One time my cousin and I drank too much (I don't drink often and got drunk on accident). We went up to a police officer on the sidewalk and asked him where we could find a hotel (we don't drive drunk) and he didn't arrest us for being drunk in public. We were not acting foolish but were clearly very drunk. I thought he was a security guard the whole time, lol. We ended up finding a hotel to spend the night in and drove the morning when we were sober. I don't think they care if you're drunk in that part of the city unless you are acting foolish. We were nice to him, but I bet if we disrespected him he would of arrested us.
They thought I had a crack pipe (at least what I think they thought) when it was just a pipe I made for tobacco. They were asking me stuff about cocaine. I like to make things if I can. Some nosy person reported me and they searched me and my friends. Then the asked us where we were going after they found nothing illegal. I didn't like that at all and think I should be able to go for a walk with my friends without being searched. They did the same thing again and told us they were searching us because a lot of cars have been reported stolen in the area we were in (none of us had cars back then) and searched us in front of everyone inside a video store that we walked to. The cops shouldn't be wasting their time doing things like this. I also had an officer claim my car smelled like pot (I never smoked pot in it and don't smoke pot). They called backup on me, told me a lot of drug dealers came from the apartment I lived in, and searched me and my vehicle while making me put my hands behind my back. They also yelled at me for making any slight movement. I couldn't even scratch my head in bemusement. After that experience, I decided to always make the police get a warrant. I tried the whole nothing to hide crap. They treated me like a criminal.
Edit again: I had moved to Virginia since those bad experiences and the police here seem much more relaxed. I've never given police an attitude or anything and tried my best to cooperate with them and be friendly.
No need to make this personal.
I've had good and bad experiences with the police. Just like I've had good and bad experiences with every other person doing their job. In my youth I had the attitude of not doing anything to make things easier on the police. Now that I'm older and hopefully wiser I've changed that attitude. If I get stopped I always turn the car off and put both hands on the steering wheel. At night I turn on my overhead light too. I used to keep my plants and lights in my living room, right out in front of the picture window with extremely thin curtains. When the HPS lights gets warmed up it looks like ET is landing. I've yet to have the police stop by. If they did I would be happy to show them what's going on. I have nothing to hide and they do have a job that requires them to ask questions when observing something that may be illigal.