Pubdate: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 Source: Standard Freeholder (Cornwall, CN ON) Copyright: 2009 Osprey Media Group Inc. Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/sRKlJFsP Website: http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1169 Author: Claude McIntosh Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) CHIEF'S SIGN EXPERIMENT MAY NOT FLY FOR LONG The sign experiment probably isn't going to fly. But give Police Chief Dan Parkinson credit for trying to insert a new wrinkle in his department's struggle to control the low-level drug trade that infests this city. Parkinson came up with the bright but somewhat off-the-wall idea of erecting a "Drug Search Warrant" sign outside residences raided by his street crime unit. The first sign went up on Wednesday afternoon. The first protest was aired Thursday morning by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. No surprise. And now the Ontario Information Privacy Commissioner is investigating the issue. You can bet the commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, will not be embracing the program as a great crime-fighting tool. Apparently, even drug dealers, the ones who operate out of their homes, are entitled to privacy and to Hades with the law-abiding neighbours. The idea that people arrested on drug charges are entitled to privacy is bogus. Their names appear in police blotters. Suspects appear in public court. And just about everybody in the neighbourhood knows what is going on at the address. The big giveaway is the constant traffic in and out of the house. So how can a sign posted outside a home that is raided be an invasion of an accused person's privacy? - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin