While learning more about this Community Wellness Doctrine and its ability to circumvent our right to privacy under the 4th Amendment, (under specific exigent/emergency conditions) I came across the below document by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Handbook on police accountability, oversight and integrity.
BELOW ARE SOME PARAGRAPHS FROM THAT HANDBOOK but I removed the pages of footnotes which made reading the actual text difficult, so if interested in the footnotes please refer to the above link for the entire handbook. Also if you see an errant number somewhere in the below text – I missed that one!
Anyway, the below paragraphs are chronologically correct, but just missing the numbers and corresponding lengthy footnotes that can be FOUND USING THE ABOVE LINK (don’t want to be accused of trying to conceal or misrepresent anything…..PLUS I didn’t allow the word processor to correct the spelling of words it flagged, or to substitute another for what originally there! lol)
So here’s the 411 which struck me as being pertinent and supportive of my perspective regarding the law enforcement “wellness check and search” at my home on October 4th 2024 while I was away.
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A. Democratic policing: key concepts
The mechanisms established by States to protect people’s rights, establish and maintain
order and guarantee stability and security are usually referred to collectively as the security
sector. An important actor in the security sector is the police, whose functions, as a
minimum, are:
” Prevention and detection of crime
” Maintenance of public order
” Provision of assistance to the public
In order to carry out these functions, the police have certain powers, namely the power to
arrest and detain and the power to use force. It is precisely this monopoly on the use of
force and the power to arrest and detain that place the police in a unique and sensitive
position within the democratic State, so that adequate control mechanisms are required
to ensure that these powers are consistently used in the public interest. Like any other
public service, the police must operate with impartiality.”
“The description of the police as the strong arm of the State reflects their authorization
to enforce laws and policies defined by State institutions. In some countries, this leads
to State representatives trying to influence the police to serve their interests rather than
the public interest (known as political interference). Others therefore prefer to regard
the police as a service to the public, with the emphasis on the requirement for the police
to be responsive to the people’s needs, given that they are carrying out their functions
on the people’s behalf. However, it may be difficult to define the people and their needs
because in many countries, different social groups may have different expectations
about how the police should respond to certain situations.”
“Neither acting exclusively on the instructions of State representatives nor simply
honouring public requests will ensure policing in the public interest. To enable
impartiality, including political impartiality, and non-arbitrary professional
decision-making—in particular with regard to the use of police powers—the police
must be allowed to use independent professional judgement when responding to
particular situations.”
“The police leadership must be granted sufficient autonomy to decide, within an
established budgetary framework and in line with laws and policies, how to respond to
law-and-order situations and how to allocate resources, based on their professional
expertise and intelligence as well as on their community contacts, subsequently
accounting for their decisions. This is known as operational independence.
In other words, appropriate police action involves finding a balance between serving the
State (which, in itself, must serve the public interest), serving the public (with its
potentially varying community needs), and police professionalism.’
“The operational independence of the police leadership filters down to rank-and-file
officers, where it takes the form of discretion (or discretionary powers). While on duty,
a police officer typically has discretionary power in deciding which deviant behaviour to
act on (obviously, acting within the bounds established in national law and policy).
Exercising some discretion is at the very heart of policing: not every offence is worthy
of police action nor is police action always the best solution to a problem. Additionally,
police officers typically have some room for manoeuvre when using police powers, with
the authority to make decisions on such matters as how much force to use and on
whether to carry out arrests or searches.
Operational independence requires police:
” To have a high degree of professionalism and independence from political
influences
” To act in conformity with the law and established policies
” To operate on the basis of public consent (within the framework of the law),
as evidenced by levels of public confidence
” To take responsibility for their decisions and operations, accepting liability
when required, and to exhibit full transparency in decisions and openness to
external scrutiny
In other words, good policing is policing that is both effective and fair. Police who are
ineffective, or illegitimate or unfair, in protecting the public against crime will lose the
public’s confidence. Good policing is policing with legitimacy on the basis of public
consent, rather than repression.”
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Like a frigg’n bee buzzing inside my head that I can’t shoo away!
What were deputies doing in my home on that October 4th day?
What were Sheriff Deputies thinking at the time of their forced entry into my secured property?
What information and/or evidence supports a reasonable belief that an emergency existed or that I was even at home when my pickup truck, utility camping trailer, and companion German Shepherd Dog Liz were absent – as has been the case many times during the last 3-1/2 years of excursions to the desert?
My best to you and yours, Lew
PS Question:
Since I DID NOT UNDERLINE, BOLDFACE, OR MODIFY THE TEXT in anyway, can you guess which sentences and paragraphs I thought might be particularly relevant to the incident at my home?
later!
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