A new way for the government to spy on us….

Posted on 21. Aug, 2010 by Spy Geeks in Articles

A police officer with a handheld device walks around an apartment complex and aims a small handheld device on every door handle in sight. He finds one which causes the device to ring out an audible tone. Yahtzee!  He knocks on the door and within seconds is combing through your stuff asking you where you’re hiding your Meth.  He finds the motherlode and you’re off to jail.  Illegal search and seizure? Maybe not. If a police dog can establish reasonable suspicion during a traffic stop allowing a police officer to “frisk” your car could a portable hand held electronic device establish reasonable suspicion to allow a police officer to “frisk” your apartment?  Think about it.

The technology is out there and readily available. It’s called the ID2 Meth Scanner from CDEX, Inc.. Priced at nearly $10K and with few if any court cases regarding its lawful use it is probably too pricey and too controversial for mainstream use among law enforcement agencies.  It works by sending out an energy source to excite a sample source of suspected Meth on a surface such as a door handle.  It then reads the resulting photoemission and determines if the sample contains Meth.  Conceivably this technology could also be made to determine other types of substances, legal or otherwise.

Do I condone drug use?  Absolutely not!  I do however favor the protections of our fourth amendment.  Our door handles, money, cars, clothes and just about anything else have trace amounts of many types of substances on them.  Say for instance you go to a restaurant and sit at a booth which was just occupied by a Meth user.  There is a chance that the Meth user may have trace amounts of Meth on their skin, which could get transferred onto the table, and we all know how well tables are “cleaned” at restaurants.  You put your arms down on the table and get the substance on your shirt.  If these types of devices are made readily available, conceivably the cops could start routinely using them on every traffic stop to detect for the presence of Meth, or any type of drug depending on the scanner, just as they routinely check your ID and insurance.  So after dinner at this restaurant you’re pulled over and scanned and now you’re really screwed as you are arrested for possession of a controlled substance even though you really have no idea how it got there.  Far reaching story?  Probably, but give the government an inch and they’ll take a mile.

Tags: big brother, CDEX, drugs, fourth amendment, ID2 Meth Scanner, illegal search and seizure, Inc., meth, stop and frisk, terry stop