New local sheriffs program. Your thoughts and opinions.

65kaiser · Feb 17, 2012

Last night I had a guest stay at my house. This morning she goes out to her car and finds it locked ( she had not locked it ) on the front seat was a printed card from the local sheriff stating that they had checked her car found it unlocked and locked it, the car was at least 75ft. from the road.
Is this a common procedure for law enforcement to walk onto a persons property and check for unlocked cars and then open the door and lock it?
On one level it could be appreciated but on another level it kind of concerns me. It seems to me that this a bit of a violation of privacy.
I am interested in your opinions, especially those of law enforcement

jbull380 · Feb 17, 2012

Why not just look at it for what it is? A favor.
Many times during night shift patrol I would find car doors wide open, trunks open etc. I would wake people up at 3 am to have them check thier property and hope that would help them to remember to secure thier stuff. They always appreciated the time I took for them even if I drug them out of bed.

EdnAZ · Feb 17, 2012

Don't touch what isn't yours.

StatesRightist · Feb 17, 2012

I'm wondering if she left the door literally open, lights on in the interior....if not, then I would agree it was a little odd.

Dragon88 · Feb 17, 2012

If the car were on a street, and the sheriff did what jbull380 mentions above, I would agree with it. But for a sheriff to come 75 feet on to private property to check a vehicle where no obvious problem exists from a distance, that seems really questionable to me. I would be curious how unlawful search laws apply. What about the car caused him to open a person's private property, on private property, and take it upon himself to change the condition of that property? Just because he could? What about if next time he decided to root through the car or trunk before locking it looking for contraband. What if he were to find a firearm left in the vehicle? Would he "secure" it, or run the serial number?

All of this while the owner is unaware and likely asleep in their home, with no notification taking place.

Lots of questions pop up over this.

gregintenn · Feb 17, 2012

Last year, our county sherrif's dept. went around putting cards in mailboxes saying somethingto the effect of "your neighborhood has been patrolled at x time and x date.

Not that it's a big deal, but I thought it was against federal law tamper with a mailbox.

Now if you think being in someone's car in the middle of the night can't cause you a great deal of trouble, you just don't have good sense.

jbull380 · Feb 17, 2012

I'm pretty sure if you didn't want them to check on your property while your asleep you could call that department and tell them. I'm also pretty sure they will never even bother to shine a light on it again. I guess since I'm from a small town I look at more like I'm doing my job.

jlrhiner · Feb 17, 2012

I'm thinking that the Deputy that did it probably patrolled your area often and saw it was a different car at your place. Is the spot where it was visible from the road? Just thinking

amazingflapjack · Feb 17, 2012

Would check out the suggestions above-and if everything else seemed OK, I'd want to know about any history your friend has with the officer, or one of his "buddys."

65kaiser · Feb 17, 2012

amazingflapjack said:
Would check out the suggestions above-and if everything else seemed OK, I'd want to know about any history your friend has with the officer, or one of his "buddys."

No history, not from this county. nor do I have any history of any kind.

65kaiser · Feb 17, 2012

Let me add I believe that this is an established program that is being enforced. When I left the house today i noticed out on the main street one of those portable billboards that read please lock your cars.

samuelrp · Feb 17, 2012

I find it strange.

labworm · Feb 18, 2012

I remember reading a similar story at another forum. I think in took place in New Hampshire, not positive though.

Smith357 · Feb 18, 2012

I leave my car doors unlocked, I would rather have someone go through it and find that 38 cents in the console, than break out a window to find that 38 cents in the console.

MTS Cop · Feb 18, 2012

I find it a little odd. I have locked people's car for them, but they were parked on a public street and were blatanly not secure (i.e. doors or windows wide open, car unattended). I see nothing wrong with looking out for someone's property, but to venture onto private property to do a security check on a parked car is weird.

kraigwy · Feb 18, 2012

Not sure how it would work here since most people leave their keys in the car.

More then once have I came home and found someone borrowed my water truck, but it was always returned.

Not sure neighbors would appreciate it if the sheriff locked the truck and they couldn't use it.

DOEBOY1 · Feb 18, 2012

If it ain't yours dont touch it. Send your time catching the ones that break into the cars. Don't want you in my yard, unless you are just coming to visit. Sounds more like tresspassing to me. Cops are just like anybody else. You have your good ones and you have your bad ones, people are people no matter what clothes they have on. What if that cop had locked the doors and the keys were under the seat. Who gets to pay for the locksmith. Blue wall goes up and no one takes responsiblity for their actions. Don't come past the mail box if you know I'm a sleep. Doeboy

rebs081 · Feb 18, 2012

remember the old days when the cop walked the beat and checked all doors to make sure they were locked ? It was appreciated back then.
Perhaps the cop was simply securing his beat, possibly avoiding a car theft.

David LaPell · Feb 18, 2012

This program will last until you get enough people who claim that the officers stole something out of their cars. When that happens the sheriff will probably get sick of it and then say to heck with it. I know that because that happened up here locally a few years back.

Personally I would rather not have someone touch my car. My wife doesn't go in there unless necessary and I dont want a deputy touching my unmentionables.

wheelgun28 · Feb 18, 2012

Well this is a big problem here right now. Folks are going house to house neighborhood to neighborhood checking for unlocked cars. If its locked they move on if its open the take your money, cell phone, gps not to much other stuff.

The strange thing is that I live on 1 acre parcels so were a little spread out. It will take a lot of walking to get a few cars.

I never locked my cars, lost some change lesson learned. Up till a few years ago I never locked my house. I only started that so no one would open the door and let our dogs out.

Oh, I live in a boring town that has low crime yet we have this.

New local sheriffs program. Your thoughts and opinions.

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