That is half one in all Operation Shakedown, a collection about heavy-handed site visitors enforcement techniques and property seizures in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Click on right here to learn half two.
In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, on Interstate 85, law enforcement officials cease autos for touring within the left lane whereas not actively passing, touching the white fog line, or following too intently. This annual crackdown is named Operation Rolling Thunder, and the police demand perfection.
Any infraction, irrespective of how minor, can result in a roadside interrogation and warrantless search. Nonetheless, a 21-month battle for transparency exhibits taking part companies play free with South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which requires the federal government to carry out its enterprise in an “open and public method.”
Motorists should comply with state legal guidelines with exactness. However the individuals in control of enforcement give themselves a move.
Deny, Deny, Deny
The drawn-out FOIA dispute began on October 11, 2022, lower than one week after a five-day blitz that produced almost $1 million in money seizures. Our public-interest legislation agency, the Institute for Justice, requested entry to incident studies for all 144 car searches that occurred throughout the joint operation involving 11 companies: The Cherokee, Florence, Greenville, and Spartanburg County sheriff’s workplaces; the Duncan, Gaffney, and Wellford police departments; the South Carolina Freeway Patrol, Legislation Enforcement Division, and State Transport Police; and the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
Our intent was easy. We wished to test for constitutional violations, which may multiply within the rush to tug over and search as many autos as attainable inside a set time-frame. South Carolina companies have performed the operation yearly since 2006, but nobody has ever finished a scientific audit.
Somewhat than adjust to its FOIA obligation, Spartanburg County denied our request with out citing any provision within the legislation. We tried once more after which recruited the assistance of South Carolina resident and legal professional Adrianne Turner, who filed a 3rd request in 2023.
It took a lawsuit to lastly pry the information free. Turner filed the particular motion with outdoors illustration.
Key Findings
The incident studies, launched in batches from March by means of July 2024, present why Spartanburg County was keen to forestall anybody from acquiring them.
- Over 72 p.c of auto searches throughout Operation Rolling Thunder in 2022 produced nothing unlawful. Officers routinely handled harmless drivers like criminals.
- Carrying any amount of money is authorized, however officers handled foreign money as contraband. The information describe no single case during which officers discovered a considerable amount of money and didn’t seize it. All cash was presumed soiled.
- Officers pressured property homeowners to signal roadside abandonment kinds, giving up claims to their money on the spot.
- South Carolina residents largely obtained a move. Officers centered on autos with out-of-state plates, rental vehicles, and business buses. Over 83 p.c of the prison suspects recognized throughout warrantless searches lived out of state. Almost half have been from Georgia.
- Black vacationers have been particularly weak. Almost 74 p.c of the suspects recognized and 75 p.c of the individuals arrested have been black. That is greater than triple the South Carolina black inhabitants of 25 percent.
Working within the Shadows
Whereas these information shine a lightweight on police conduct, nonetheless extra secrets and techniques stay.
By coverage, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Workplace and companion companies don’t create incident studies for each search. They solely doc their “wins” after they discover money or contraband. They don’t doc their “losses” after they come up empty.
Due to this coverage, Spartanburg County has no information for 102 of the 144 searches that occurred throughout Operation Rolling Thunder in 2022. Nowhere do officers describe how they gained possible trigger to enter the autos the place nothing was discovered. The police open and shut investigations after which act just like the searches by no means occurred.
This leaves authorities watchdogs at the hours of darkness—by design. They can not examine public information that don’t exist. Victims can not cite them in litigation. And police supervisors can not evaluation them when evaluating job efficiency.
Even when physique digicam video exists, there isn’t any paper path. This lack of recordkeeping undercuts the intent of FOIA. Companies dodge accountability by merely not summarizing their embarrassing or doubtlessly unconstitutional conduct.
The rigged system is rife with abuse. Accessible information present that officers routinely order drivers to exit their autos and sit within the entrance seat of a patrol automobile. If individuals present indicators of “labored breathing,” “nervousness,” or being “visibly shaken,” the police depend this towards possible trigger.
Officers overlook that anxiousness is regular when trapped in a police cruiser with out permission to depart. Even individuals who worth their Fourth Modification proper to be “safe of their individuals, homes, papers, and results, in opposition to unreasonable searches and seizures” can break below stress and consent to a search.
If vacationers refuse, officers can deliver K9 models to the scene for open-air sniffs. Having no medicine within the car doesn’t all the time assist. False positives occurred throughout Operation Rolling Thunder, however the lack of recordkeeping makes an entire audit inconceivable.
Intimidation, harassment, and misjudgment are simply hidden. The police inform vacationers: “You probably have nothing to cover, you need to allow us to search.” However when the roles are reversed and the general public asks questions, companies all of the sudden wish to stay silent.
