On The Front Lines
Rutherford Institute Warns Richmond Police that ‘Wake Up Call’ Initiative Could Lead to Police Fishing Expeditions, Confrontations
RICHMOND, Va.— In a letter to the Chief of the Richmond Police Department, constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute is warning that the department’s “Wake Up Call” initiative poses serious threats to the privacy and security of homeowners. The initiative directs police officers to examine the interiors of parked cars between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m. for the presence of valuables left in plain view and wake up the owners to alert them to the dangers of vandalism. However, as Whitehead points out, not only could the initiative become a pretext for officers to engage in “fishing expeditions,” but the late-night knocks could also unduly alarm residents who mistake the police visits for home invasions, leading to violent confrontations.
The Institute’s letter to the Richmond Police Department is available here.
“Not only is this Wake Up Call initiative a misguided effort to curb property crimes, but it infringes upon the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens to privacy and to be free of unreasonable police intrusions,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Except in the most compelling of circumstances, the Richmond police should avoid intrusions that could be misconstrued as home invasions, placing both officers and residents in a precarious situation fraught with tension.”
The Richmond Police Department’s “Wake Up Call” initiative, which is carried out between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m., reportedly tasks officers with examining the interiors of vehicles parked on neighborhood streets to determine whether any valuables are in plain view inside the vehicle. If officers determine that valuables are present in plain view, they will then verify through motor vehicle records whether the owner lives in the neighborhood, and if so, “midnight shift officers will knock on the [owner’s] front door for an unexpected wakeup call.” However, as Whitehead points out in his letter, the program gives rise to numerous concerns that warrant putting an end to it.
First, because police do not have an absolute right to intrude upon residential property, their presence on residential property in the middle of the night could be viewed as an encroachment upon the Fourth Amendment rights of the homeowners. Second, a police officer’s late-night knock on a resident’s door could cause the homeowner to mistake the police visit for a home invasion, thereby leading to an unintended violent confrontation. Third, in the absence of probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment, the initiative could become a pretext for officers to engage in “fishing expeditions” at residences that officers desire to inspect or search. As Whitehead concludes, “There are certainly other means available to the Richmond Police to serve the goals of the ‘Wake Up Call’ initiative without invading the privacy and security of homeowners.”
