The big advantage I see of the CARI program is the technology, the portable fingerprint scanners. That allows fast identification of the criminals and allows the innocents who get caught up in the system to be released faster. If there is not a match to a fingerprint of someone in the system the individual is released immediatley.
Your links, Poncho, are both relating to the NYC “Stop and Frisk” program so I don’t see the connection.
I understand the fourth amendment and am glad we have constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. But who is it that is upset about “Stop and Frisk” or any kind of “Profiling?” For the most part it is the criminals.
The question of course goes back to what is reasonable search and what constitutes probable cause. To me being asked for identification, or a fingerprint if I don’t have proper identification is not unreasonable.
I have been stopped and frisked. I have been searched, handcuffed, and put in the back of a police car. I have had them search my car. All because I was mistaken for someone else or was suspected of something I did not do. In each case, although I was inconvenienced for a short time, I was released and in each case the law enforcement officers apologized to me and explained why they had done what they did. Also in each case I was cooperative and did as the officers requested. When they say lay down on the ground or put your hands on the car and you don’t . . . that is when you get tazed!
Now none of that is to say I am willing to give law enforcement officers a blank check to do whatever they want. I have also been harassed above the point that I thought was necessary for them to do their job, and while I was respectful and compliant up to a point that case did result in a formal complaint on my part to the county sheriff later, and the deputy involved is no longer a law enforcement officer. There is a nice story there for another day.