Wrong Door Raids

As if on cue, just a few days after Balko’s interview series, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department executed a wrong-door raid, another topic Balko frequently blogs about.

Marye Minton, 70, and her 72-year-old husband were awoken early Thursday to officers banging on the door of their home…

Marye Minton said she is upset that the officers came inside and ordered her husband, who is in poor health, onto the ground.

“They said to him, ‘Get on the floor,’ like that, and see my husband’s had four strokes, and he can’t whoop anybody, he can’t do anything,” she said. “I’m very mad and I don’t want it to happen to another citizen.”

Officers were trying to serve a warrant for a man wanted on drug charges. The address listed on the paperwork was 4042. The Minton’s home is 4048, with both house numbers clearly marked.

But Major Mark Robinett of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, who is in charge of warrant sweeps, said he was told that officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies.

The explanation from Major Robinett would be hilarious if it weren’t so outrageous. Typically what happens in the wake of these incidents is a complete lack of apology, a statement by the police that all procedures were followed appropriately, a congratulations to the officers for doing so, and absolutely no suggestion that those procedures be reviewed. Robinett’s piss-poor excuse for why the mistake happened is damning evidence of just how lightly law enforcement officers are allowed to view these kinds of wrong door raids, free from any accountability or circumspection.

As Balko endlessly points out, law enforcement officers are, on the whole, honest and hard-working people. But even good people will make bad decisions given the right incentives, and our entire policy framework for criminal justice encourages sloppy, violent, and uncritical police work. What officer will take the time to work against the system when even his commander feels bold enough to make the flimsiest, most asinine excuse to the media?