In the contemporary world, law enforcement agencies have seen the need to conduct their activities as they strive to protect the constitutional rights of the citizens they serve. Consequently, they strive to protect privacy, civil liberties and rights of individuals while conducting intelligence activities. Agencies undergo periodic assessments, reviews and audits to ensure that their policies and procedures are aligned to the constitutional rights of all Americans.
Over the past decade, the aggressive pursuit of intelligence by state and local agencies such as the NYPD has elicited numerous reactions from the public. In the current era, police departments have equipped themselves with extensive resources which give them the power to conduct surveillance and collect intelligence. The methodologies have not been examined and properly analyzed by the federal government and as such, some of them violate the privacy and freedom of citizens. Lack of restrictions on how information is gathered, shared and issued has also been a concern to many people who believe that law enforcement agencies have gone too far as far as intelligence activities are concerned. Lack of accountability, structure, and oversight in these procedures has, therefore, led to the use of techniques that violate the constitutional rights of innocent Americans ( Liberties, 2008 ).
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Stop and frisk. In 2013, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that the NYPD violated the constitutional rights of Americans based on how it carried out the stop and frisk program ( Patel, 2014 ). Over the recent past, evidence showed that patrol officers stopped and frisked innocent people without any objective reason or suspicion of wrongdoing. This activity is conducted with the full awareness of the city’s highest officials and yet they turn a blind eye to the plight of the minority groups. Even though the NYPD says that this procedure saves a lot of lives by removing thousands of arms from the streets, it is evident that the stop and frisk program is only aimed at young black and Hispanic men. The procedure is, therefore, a violation of the fourth amendment because it is conducted in a racially discriminative manner.
Spy drones. The introduction of these devices was aimed at obtaining intelligence information and protecting individual rights as stated in the constitution. By using them, law enforcement agencies, however, do the opposite of what they were meant for. Whenever a surveillance drone flies over a home, business, farm or ranch while spying on innocent Americans, this acts as a violation of the fourth amendment because it limits people to their rights of personal privacy ( Patel, 2014 ).
References
Highlights of Ap's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Probe Into NYPD Intelligence Operations
https://www.ap.org/about/awards-and-recognition/highlights-of-aps-pulitzer-prize-winning-probe-into-nypd-intelligence-operation
Liberties, C. (2008). Privacy, Civil Rights.
Patel, F. (2014). DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE: OUR RIGHTS AND SAFETY.
