Cops Play Wii During Undercover Drug Raid

An anonymous reader writes "Guns drawn, cops busted down the door of a suspected south Florida drug dealer, then proceeded to kick some ass on Wii bowling. A security cam captured some playing video games while others searched for drugs and weapons. Clearly they just misunderstood when they were told to search the house for Weed."

Completely unacceptable

[vehicle tracking]

Having been a police officer for five years, I can comment on this one. I support the job they do when it's done right, but this is completely unacceptable. These officers should be suspended for this. Unfortunately, this kind of stuff, and worse, happens every day. There are a few bad apples in every department. We need more whistle blowers out there.

Re:cops

[sponga]

Actually, the guy was running a chop shop and had a house of stolen goods that will easily be traceable.

These are the scumbags who collect all the stuff from your car that had its window smashed in to grab that thing that is worth $5, still doesn't justify this though. Although this happens all the time where officers go through these drug deals houses and they have all the latest expensive gadgets and toys.

Although to be truthful, I have seen silly stuff like this even on the show COPS. I remember they did some Miama drug raid and found all these silly toys this guy had, everytime they would pull something out they would play with it and set it down.

9 hours of searching though the house, something like a year of previous surveillance leading up to get the warrant for the raid and the operation they listed cost about $4,000. I was surprised they listed the actual cost of the operation, but the previous surveillance had to involve lots of paid man hours of just sitting watching in the car.
Which basically makes the warrant voided and illegal as soon as the cops turned on that Wii.

Shitty ass article on Slashdot cannot even link to a Youtube link or comment by the police, here all of 10 seconds it took me.

Link to video
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8bc_1253652224&c=1#comments [liveleak.com]

Link to article and comment by the Department
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/21/undercover-drug-investigators-embarrass-polk-sheri/ [tbo.com]
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With guns drawn and flashlights cutting through darkened rooms, Polk County undercover drug investigators stormed the home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco near Lakeland in March.

As investigators searched the home for drugs, some drug task force members found other ways to occupy their time. Within 20 minutes of entering Difalco's house, some of the investigators found a Wii video bowling game and began bowling frame after frame.

While some detectives hauled out evidence such as flat screen televisions and shotguns, others threw strikes, gutter balls and worked on picking up spares.

A Polk County sheriff's detective cataloging evidence repeatedly put down her work and picked up a Wii remote to bowl. When she hit two strikes in a row, she raised her arms above her head, jumping and kicking.

While a female detective lifted a nearby couch looking for evidence, another sheriff's detective focused on pin action.

But detectives with the Polk County Sheriff's Office, the Auburndale, Lakeland and Winter Haven police departments did not know that a wireless security camera connected to a computer inside Difalco's home was recording their activity.

The recording obtained by News Channel 8 showed several members of the county's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force entering the house shortly after 8 a.m. According to the search warrant, their mission was to search for drugs, stolen property and the fruits of any illegal drug activity.

Now there are questions on how the impromptu bowling tournament might affect the case against Difalco.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd denies it will have any effect.

"That absolutely is not true; that doesn't invalidate the search at all," Judd said. "Now the defendant would like for it to invalidate the search, but unfortunately for him, it won't."

Judd, who watched the video during an interview last week, called the situation an embarrassment.

"I'm not pleased that they played that Wii bowling game," Judd said. The sheriff's office oversees the drug task force. Judd said he initiated an internal administrative investigation of the incident.

"That is not appropriate conduct at a search warrant," he said. "But I am less pleased with the supervision that didn't walk in and say, turn that off. That's what supervision should have done."

T

Re:cops

[DerekLyons]

I think most people realize that cops are just bullies fulfilling their dream of getting paid to be a bully.

That falls into the same category as believing the earth is flat or only 6,000 years old. It's horseshit.
 
 

Not only that, but anyone willing to ruin someone's life over a little pot (like these cops) has a serious lack of ethics.

Ah. Now I understand - you think it's unethical to enforce the law, and thus those who enforce the law must be bullies.

Re:READ TFA!!!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

>> Why do they spend thousands of man hours setting up undercover drug operations, and not
>> thousands of hours infiltrating gangs that go around raping and murdering?

1. Because they are afraid they might get shot while chasing dangerous gang members. In other words, they are too cowardly to do the job they are paid to do.

2. Because according our current ridiculous search-and-seizure laws, the local police force gets to keep a percentage of the proceeds from selling whatever they seized in a drug raid. So, the cops have a personal financial incentive to continue abusing and persecuting non-dangerous people whose only "crime" is possession of marijuana.