To the Police: No Consent to Search Our Home

Mark Segraves, WTOP Radio

Members of the National Capital ACLU were in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Southeast D.C. recently to hand out signs and flyers alerting residents to a new police program called "SafeHomes." They weren't promoting it, they were warning residents about it.

The ACLU is also handing out signs for people to place in their windows which read "To the Police..NO CONSENT TO SEARCH OUR HOME."

"We're not comfortable with police banging on doors like the British troops did before we had a Bill of Rights." Johnny Barnes, executive director, said. "We're going to mirror the activity of the police. The neighborhoods into which they go, we will go to tell people what their rights are."

Barnes is upset about "SafeHomes," a new program being spearheaded by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Part of the program has police going door-to-door in targeted high crime neighborhoods and asking parents and grandparents for permission to search their kids' bedroom for guns.

But SafeHomes is NOT a new idea. St. Louis tried it in 1994. As Lanier correctly pointed out at the press conference announcing the program, St. Louis police recovered hundreds of guns through their "Consent-To-Search" program. In fact, in the first year they recovered 510 guns. What Lanier failed to mention was that the next year, St. Louis police only recovered about 30 guns and the program was canceled. Three years later, St. Louis received a federal grant to revive the program, but in nine months only 29 guns were found. The program was finally canceled for good.

Parents and grandparents who allow police inside will have to sign a consent form which allows police to search all or part of the home. If any guns or drugs are found, everybody in the house is given amnesty from prosecution. Of course, if the gun is later linked to a crime, then police can revoke the amnesty.

Lanier and Fenty, who likes to borrow "best practices" from other cities, also point to Boston as a role model for "SafeHomes." In Boston, it's called "Safe Homes" and it hasn't been implemented yet. In Boston, "Safe Homes" is under fire from elected officials and community leaders. City Council members held public hearings on the program, and that's what D.C. Council Chair Vince Gray wants to do.

"There's a potential for abuse here," Gray said. "It's bothersome in terms of the public's understanding. What about the language barriers?"

SafeHomes is a program that could have lots of unintended consequences. For instance, what happens if you tell police they can't search your house? Is your name and your house put on a list? YES, according to Traci Hughes, a spokesperson for Lanier. What that list will be used for is unclear. Hughes says one reason to keep a list is to keep from knocking on the same doors over and over again.

Will police report their findings to other government agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, D.C. Public Schools, or the Public Housing Authority? YES and NO, says Hughes.

"Amnesty means amnesty, and that's just across the board," Hughes said.

Police will not notify immigration or the PHA, but Hughes says they might notify the school system or social services of what they find.

"Part of the reason for the Focus Improvement Areas is to identify those homes that may need other government assistance. If we see that residents may require other services, then we will notify those other agencies that could be of assistance. The purpose of reporting the information is not to penalize anyone in the home, only to provide assistance."

Another issue that concerns the ACLU, and at least a few news organizations, is transparency. The police department has denied requests from several news outlets to go along with officers as they conduct the searches for at least the first month of the program.

That's something Barnes and the ACLU question.

"What do they have to hide? If what they're doing conforms to the constitution what do they have to hide? Our police department prefers to do things in the dark." Barnes says.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)