Despite intense opposition by the Greensboro Police Officers Association (GPOA), the Greensboro City Council is set to approve a new policy on consent searches by police officers at its virtual meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m.
A “consent search” occurs when a person gives consent to have their vehicle or home searched. Officers who do not have probable cause to search a vehicle or residence must receive “consent” from the owner or operator of the vehicle before conducting a search. If an officer has probably cause no consent is necessary.
If the person does not give consent and the officer does not have probable cause then the officer cannot conduct the search.
At the August 11 work session, a majority of the City Council voted in favor of having the resolution requiring written consent prepared for the Sept. 15 meeting.
The new policy that will be up for approval will require the officer to not only request permission to search but to advise the person of the reason for the search, the fact that consent must be given and can be withdrawn at any time during the search and have the person giving consent sign a form that establishes consent has been freely given.
The officer is also required to provide the form in the “preferred language” of the person giving consent. The new police directive states, “For persons granting consent via a Consent to Search Form and for whom English is not their preferred language, a Consent to Search Form in their language will be provided or if not available, an interpreter will be provided to read and explain the Consent to Search form.”
According to the Greensboro Planning Department more than 37 languages are spoken in Greensboro.
The policy also states that if the person cannot read the form must be read to them in its entirety and if the person consents but refuses to sign the form the consent to search will be documented with the police body worn camera video.
A report from the GPOA showed that in other jurisdictions when written consent forms were required the number of consent searches dropped considerably.
The GPOA report also cited examples where handguns were found as the result of consent searches.
The Greensboro City Council may not be defunding the police as in some other cities, but according to the GPOA the City Council is making the job of a Greensboro police officer more difficult.
Well, guess we’ll see an uptick in crimes not solved by putting our law enforcement in handcuffs.
IMHO, many people don’t realize that police stop cars for various reasons such as fitting a description of one they are looking for, smell of marijuana from the car, license tag expired, tail lights not working, etc. A couple of years ago the former police chief was asked by the city council to reduce the stopping cars in east Greensboro which they considered to be racial harassment. Result? Crime did not go down and that project was reversed.
So now officers are expected to learn to read 37 languages so that they can read the form verbatim to someone…How are they getting away with this!
Maybe they can add “Pig Latin” to make a total of 38 languages spoken in Greensboro!
“For persons granting consent via a Consent to Search Form and for whom English is not their preferred language, a Consent to Search Form in their language will be provided or if not available, an interpreter will be provided to read and explain the Consent to Search form.”
You have to give the Peoples Council some credit, they managed to find a way to increase the City employee numbers by at least 37.
Anybody want to bet the salaries on these interpreter positions will be very high 5 figure numbers?
Cops will just quit searching and less firearms taken off the street. Violent crimes are going to skyrocket but then again our Demoncratic city council wants to model Greensboro after Chicago so have at it.
It must be that members of the Council surely don’t want to give consent to ever have their own cars searched.
The way they “govern” leads one to suspect there may be some personal reason for denying a search! HA!
Do I detect any sarcasm here? Cynicalerism?
Dump the Dufus from Raleigh to da dipstick.
If this keeps up all I’ll have to do to avoid a search, arrest, or even a speeding ticket is self-identify as a Nigerian whose preferred language is Njerep. It’s a Bantoid language is spoken in Nigeria by only 4 individuals at last count. According to reports from anthropologists, the youngest person who speaks the language is 60. No interpreter – no ticket – no problem. Thanks Greensboro!
Our city council; I truly cannot say what I am thinking ! I can not fathom how anyone on this council even makes it through the day without any common sense? How awful it must be to be a complete fool. You do your best to handcuff our police with chore after chore before they can even attempt to do their sworn job that they spent thousand of hours learning. Having them do this letter is such a slap in the face and even put a line in there saying that after the upstanding citizen has already agreed to a search, they can, AT ANY TIME, stop it. Like the child’s game of hot or cold. Mr Officer, you are getting to close to my hidden weapon or stash, so you will have to stop. Y’all have made G’boro the laughing stock of NC again. Also, our preferred language is English. You live in the USA, you become bi-lingual, simple as that.
So, once again the City Council is narcissistic enough to think they know better than our trained Police Force. Simple enough, just keep a car full of clowns, 37 at last count, on the payroll 24/7/365!
Btw: Did we get the downtown looters to sign consent forms before we arrested them? Oh wait, we didn’t arrest a single one.
Mayor and city council -wonder why so many officers are leaving? I recommend to publish the city council and Mayors home address, phone numbers so citizens can call them instead of the police to resolve domestic dispute(s), solve homicides and aid citizens 24/7. Want to defund the police? Let our mayor and city council do the police work. Interesting how the council can influence the department when not a single one of them have been in uniform. Chief what the council is trying to pass is not law, you know that. Remember I asked you in a town hall meeting if you feel you can do your job without council interference? You responded, “YES”.: Time to back your personal!
Ironic that this same edition on the Rhino… contains an article about umpteen millions to fight drug abuse..,,but the brilliant “council” wants to handcuff the police that fight drug abuse…
When the officer stops someone who does not read or speak English; 1. How does he learn what his language is? 2.How does he entertain the stopped subject until you can find a copy in his language or an Interpreter who may take an hour or so to get there?
Officers are leaving and soon residents will be, too. This council is a laughing stock — a bunch of woke kooks. The only people left in Greensboro will be those who can’t afford their own social services. This council is scaring away the taxpaying residents and probably businesses, too. C’mon, who wants to live and/or do business in a town where crime will be running rampant??
Soon nothing will be left except those who are too poor to relocate. Very sad. I hope the people of GSO wake up and vote these tools out of office next year.