Quoting the article:VMI77 wrote:Some of your analysis depends on the assumption that there was an anonymous tip. Given the history of "anonymous tips" I think there is good reason to doubt there was any such tip in the first place. But even if there was, the "anonymous tip" is easily abused. The police have been known to have a fellow officer phone in an anonymous tip, but really, all someone has to do is say they got one from a passerby on the street. I think the issue comes back to probably cause, and the fact that they had no description of either the perp or the vehicle and had to stop and detail some 19 vehicles proves they didn't have it.
I did not use the word "anonymous." I based my analysis on the wording used in the article, which was "reliable." By definition, a "reliable" tipster would not be "anonymous," unless that tipster was able to reveal knowledge of the crime known only to police. That alone would make the tipster "a person of interest".....or it should. That allegedly "reliable" tip did not include a description of the vehicle or its occupant, including his/her race and gender. I question the reliability of the source. The cops should have questioned that reliability too. Instead, they detained and handcuffed the occupants of 19 vehicles based on thin evidence. To me, it sounds like I could phone in a "reliable" tip to the Aurora PD, stating that "there's a man with a gun at the intersection of Main and Elm," and they'd go down there and cuff and search everyone looking for a gun. And, since Colorado issues concealed carry permits, there's even the likelihood of someone there actually having a gun....who has it quite legitimately.Police said they had received what they called a “reliable” tip that the culprit in an armed robbery at a Wells Fargo bank committed earlier was stopped at the red light.
“We didn’t have a description, didn’t know race or gender or anything, so a split-second decision was made to stop all the cars at that intersection, and search for the armed robber,” Aurora police Officer Frank Fania told ABC News.
Officers barricaded the area, halting 19 cars.
I think the Aurora PD bandies about the term "reliable" without regard for its actual meaning. I think that the citizens of Aurora have a problem with their police department that needs to be addressed before it festers into an un-policeable situation. I think the Aurora PD Chief needs to go before the media, acknowledge the unreliability of the tip, and announce that they are reviewing their procedures to ensure that this never happens again. I think that his/her superiors in the city's administration should either respond in a way to deal with the problem, or they should be held politically accountable in the next election.
When I say that I understand the "tactical necessity," that does not mean that I approve of that necessity within the larger context of society. It merely means that I understand the internal logic of that decision....the same way your could read "Mein Kampf" and understand Adolf Hitler's internal logic without validating his conclusions. In other words, that internal logic may be illogical in the larger context. The "tactical necessity" of handcuffing and detaining 19 carloads of people while searching their vehicles for no other reason than they happened to be at a location where a demonstrably UNreliable tipster said a bank robber could be found is damaging in the larger context to the strategic goals of providing good community policing—which increases trust and cooperation between police and the community in which they work.
Here's what I think actually happened: one or more police officers thought that they might find the bank robber they were looking for at a certain intersection because he had left headed in a certain direction, and he could have only gone so far. Those officers convinced the rest of the officers of that probability. They picked the likely intersection and they acted. Afterwards, seeking to justify what they had done, they claimed that a "reliable" tip told them where to find the guy, but they also admitted that this "reliable" tip did not include any information whatsoever about model/make/color of the vehicle in question, and/or any description of the perp including his/her race and gender.
There was no tip.
new chief needed after the investigation and civil rights violation trials.
