Bill Gives Law Enforcement More Power -- Warrantless Searches of Parollees

Feb 01, 2008 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Utah's booming prison population could have an unexpected consequence - more powerful law enforcement agencies. A bill moving through the Legislature gives law enforcement the right to conduct warrantless searches - something only corrections officers can legally do now. Senator Jon Greiner [rhymes with "whiner"] says his bill gives a much-needed hand to an overburdened corrections department.

"What this bill does is it gives law enforcement an opportunity to help corrections officers to manage that population," Greiner says, "by allowing law enforcement to search a parolee at any time and place, based on their status as a parolee."

Greiner says his bill does not violate parolees' 4^th Amendment right granting them protection from "unreasonable searches and seizures." The United States Supreme Court recently ruled states CAN give law enforcement officers the power to search paroled inmates without a warrant. Parolees are still serving time, the reasoning goes, even though they're not physically behind bars.

"The intent of this is to help them acclimate themselves back into society," Greiner says. "If they really want to get back into society, then they need to come to conditions of parole, and become citizens."

Greiner says 50 percent of parolees violate the conditions of their parole within the first year, and 80 percent violate within three years. His bill has already passed the Senate and is headed to the House for consideration.

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