Portland Press Herald (Maine)
Copyright 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
WASHINGTON — There are things that a firefighter can do that a police officer can’t: One needs a warrant to enter your home without an invitation, the other is allowed to chop down your door with an ax.
These differences are important to keep in mind when evaluating the recent disclosure of a Department of Homeland Security program in which some big-city firefighters have been trained to look for signs of terrorist planning when they are performing their other duties.
While it makes sense to ask firefighters, or any member of the public, to report to the proper authorities any evidence of a crime witnessed during the course of legal activities, it goes too far to tell emergency personnel to snoop around houses and other buildings that they have entered for other reasons.
For instance, New York firefighters have been trained to look for people who show ''discontent’’ with the United States or who have blueprints or plans in their possession. Neither is illegal and by themselves should not result in a police action.
Protections against illegal search and seizure are among the bedrock rights that assure our liberty. Police officers cannot enter our houses without a warrant unless invited. In order to get a warrant, the officers have to convince a judge that there is a reasonable belief that a crime has been committed and a search would uncover evidence.
It’s a fairly low barrier. Judges authorize search warrants on a regular basis. But it is an important safeguard, nevertheless.
Training firefighters, emergency medical technicians and inspectors to use their open-door access to private places as a way around constitutional protections would be like taking an ax to our civil liberties.
It’s unnecessary, and would probably make us less safe.