Image: Tony Talbot/AP

Look closely. See it?

The "pig" in the cow logo was added by a Vermont prison inmate who makes the decals for the state police cruisers:

According to the Burlington Free Press, who originally reported the story, Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn said the disclosure of the incident made him chuckle.

"This is not as offensive as it would have been years ago. We can see the humor," Flynn said.

He said the artist has talents that could be used elsewhere. "If that person had used some of that creativeness he or she would not have ended up inside."

Link

Photo: Sergey Teplyakov/vkontakte

Russian police does not take kindly to protests, even those carried out by toys and dolls:

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: "I'm for clean elections" and "A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin".

"Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests," Andrei Mulintsev, the city's deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. "In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event."

Link - via Metafilter

(Video Link)

If Occupy Wall Street was more like this, there certainly wouldn’t be so many fights between the protestors and the police.

Via Cute Overload

How did that happen? The ticket was supposed to be dated back to 2008, but the officer missed one of those critical zeros, dating the ticket 208. Whoops! Since then everything has been fixed and the guilty party was happy to pay his 100 Euro fine.

Link Via The Consumerist Image Via Superchou [Flickr]

Link Via BuzzFeed

Mr. Weston says he is always on call; his Bluetooth earpiece comes off in public only when he goes to the barber for his weekly $16 trim. His cellphone, he says, holds the numbers of some 100 potential lineup fillers, mostly friends and acquaintances from the Mill Brook Houses, the public housing project in the South Bronx where he has lived most of his life.

He often complains about how people hound him for the chance to make a few dollars through lineup work.

“I can’t even play basketball on the courts or sit here and drink a beer,” Mr. Weston said on a recent afternoon. “People are always asking me if there is a lineup.”

Fillers are paid $10 for a local lineup in the Bronx. For each lineup that Mr. Weston fills in the Bronx, he receives $10; he gets more if he sits in as a filler or if his services are required in another borough.

Read how he builds a lineup at the New York Times. Link -via Breakfast Links

(Image credit: The Bronx District Attorney)

Firstly, the ‘date of offence’ is listed as the 23rd of June 1974 with the time being at or around half past six in the evening. This is of grave concern to me because I was not issued a drivers license until sometime in 1990 and I have no desire to be charged with driving while not legally licensed. I do not have a clear recollection of very much at all before I was three and a half years old, so I rang Mum to see if she remembered what I was doing that day. She said that – coincidentally – I was born that day!!

Mum mentioned that I was born at around five o’clock in the evening on that day in Porirua, which is not far from Wellington. She also said Porirua was a bustling suburb of young, low-income people who were trying to get ahead. Back in the 70′s, people were coming to terms with oil shocks, high-inflation and wage freezes, but that’s not important right now.

There’s more to his entertaining letter. And how did this episode turn out? Find out the final disposition of the case at Letters of Note. Link

A series of thefts has been solved at the Toledo Police Memorial Garden. Officers had noticed small flags went missing over several days, but found no clue as to the identity of the perpetrator. On Wednesday, two policemen saw who was doing it. One of them snapped a picture of a squirrel in the act of grabbing a flag and a pink flower from the garden! The squirrel fled the scene and took the loot to his nest, which was discovered to be already festooned with stolen flags. No arrest were made, and the suspect is still at large. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Toledo Police Lieutenant James Brown)

These South Korean Honor Guards proudly don Crayola Crayon-inspired outfits, complete with trumpets and peacock feathers, at the Honor Guard Ceremony in the War Memorial of Korea. In the summertime, these ceremonies are held every Friday and Saturday.

You might also notice how the US Army’s technical innovations make soldiers of the future look more and more like characters from a video game. Although the word “silly” is certainly in the eye of the beholder (but really, peacock feathers?) most of these would qualify. Personally, I think the Italian police uniforms are sharp. Link -via the Presurfer

(Image credit: US Army Korea)

In Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novel The Minority Report (which was later made into the blockbuster movie starring Tom Cruise), Precrime officers apprehend would-be criminals before they can commit crimes.

Well, it turns out that the Santa Cruz police department has a similar program. No, they don't utilize mutant precogs, instead they have something even cooler: a computer program that can predict when and where crimes will occur.

... Santa Cruz’s method is more sophisticated than most. Based on models for predicting aftershocks from earthquakes, it generates projections about which areas and windows of time are at highest risk for future crimes by analyzing and detecting patterns in years of past crime data. The projections are recalibrated daily, as new crimes occur and updated data is fed into the program.

On the day the women were arrested, for example, the program identified the approximately one-square-block area where the parking garage is situated as one of the highest-risk locations for car burglaries.

Erica Goode of The New York Times reports: Link (Photo: Jim Wilson/The NY Times)

A witness videotaped the chase and then posted it to YouTube. He and his roommate had stopped for gas on University Drive when they saw the forklift go by.

Nathan Lowery said he was stunned as he watched the shirtless suspect raise and lower the forks. It looked like the man was trying to antagonize police, he said.

“When we passed him, the guy was standing up chugging a beer and threw it at the cop car behind him,” Lowery said.

Timothy Raines was eventually arrested on the interstate highway. Link (with videos) -via Arbroath

“He was sitting on the wall out of the vehicle, holding his head,” said Mrs. Robbins. But that wasn’t the only thing that stood out to the Robbins, it was the trailer Newcomb was pulling.

“It said DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and Seymour Police Department- which made me think he was a police officer,” said Mr. Robbins.

Not only a police officer, but according to the Seymour Police Department website, he is the School Resource Officer, responsible for seven schools, acting as a mentor and providing students with a role model. It even states that he conducts lectures on narcotics and alcohol and their effects on driving.

“He’s not setting a good example for kids that see this,” said Mr. Robbins.

Newcomb said he crashed because a dog in the vehicle distracted him. He was taken to the Washington County Jail. Link -via Fark

“We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade, of what the lemonade was made with, so we acted accordingly by city ordinance.”

Who knew lemonade could be so dangerous to the public health?

Link Via Consumerist Image Via ChocoladeHam [Flickr]

She was subsequently stopped and arrested for drink-driving on Craigie Ave at about 2.14am, after blowing 776 mcg, nearly twice the adult limit of 400.

But it wasn’t over there.

The woman then rang her partner to come and pick them both up. He was stopped and arrested on North St at about 3am, when he blew 559mcg.

Supposedly the family was reunited -in jail. Link -via Arbroath

Remote cameras controlled by the traffic management center catch a family of Canada geese walking down I-90 near Seattle. They have a retinue of Washington State Troopers ensuring their safety. -via The Daily What

Named Sherlock, Miss Marple and Colombo, the three vultures all have keen eyesight and an acute sense of smell. The idea is that birds could do a better job in handling rough terrain and scanning larger areas. Which is great and all but I hope the police remember that vultures are scavengers. So don’t be surprised if a body is missing a couple eyeballs and has more flesh wounds than it should because of the vultures.

Link | Image

Two women got into a drunken argument after a night's drinking at the bar, and decided that the only logical way to find out who's right is to let the police decide:

Troopers said one of the drivers called authorities to report a dispute with another motorist about 8:15 a.m. The driver who called in then decided to drive to the district headquarters, and the other driver followed.

Troopers were waiting in the parking lot to speak to the drivers, according to Trooper Mike Link, a spokesman for the state police. The troopers found the two had been out drinking all night and were under the influence of alcohol.

Link said he isn't sure what the women were arguing about, but it started in a bar and was taken outside. The women didn't know each other, Link said. [...]

"We prefer that people stay off the roads altogether after drinking too much," Capt. Brad Parsons, the district commander for the state police, said in a statement. "But if you decide you don't want to stay off the roads, our second choice would be for you to drive to our headquarters and turn yourself in."

Link

Here’s the strange tale of how Scranton, Pennsylvania, Police Chief Dan Duffy got into trouble for making a drug arrest:

The Scranton police union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the city for an off-duty drug arrest made by Police Chief Dan Duffy in March.

The complaint, which was filed with the state Labor Relations Board on April 14, takes issue with the chief arresting a man who was allegedly in possession of marijuana because the chief is not a member of the collective bargaining unit and was "off duty" when the March 20 arrest was made.

"I think it’s absurd. I’m not going to turn my head on crime that takes place," Chief Duffy said. "I took the same oath (as a police officer) that everyone else took.

"On my day off and I’m driving around as the police chief, and that’s wrong?" he asked.

The complaint states that "the work of apprehending and arresting individuals has been the sole and exclusive province of members of the bargaining unit," and that the city did not inform or negotiate with the union that the chief would be "performing bargaining unit work."

Link

Sheriff’s deputies in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma noticed damaged wiring in their cruisers for weeks before finding out who the perpetrator is. Spokesman Mark Myer said the culprit is a squirrel who approaches the vehicles by a tree that hangs over the parked cars. Animal control officers have set traps, but so far the suspect has not been captured. Link -via Arbroath

Just when you think a Twitter feed is run by machines, something happens to remind you that a real person with a real sense of humor is on duty. The Boston Police Department assures us that they aren’t holding back pertinent information. -via Breakfast Links

You Tube Link

When Florida Police Officer Glenn Eppler came upon a group of ducklings in danger he didn’t just keep driving.  He stopped traffic and saved the ducklings.

“This job, you never know what you’re going to see,” Eppler tells WINK News.  “I saw the baby ducks and thought of my daughter. She loves ducks.  She’s ten and I could hear her in my ear saying, ‘get out and save those ducks.’”

The Officer’s dash-cam caught the whole thing on tape.

Catching ducklings is no easy task.  Lucky for the Officer a witness joined in and helped.

Link

An estimated 500 to 600 drug traffickers were hiding in the Complexo do Alemão area of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Over several days last week, shootouts between police and gang members left at least 42 people dead and residents terrified. The Big Picture Blog has 40 photographs from the raids. Some may be disturbing. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: REUTERS/Sergio Moraes)

Is that a Japanese Special Forces troop covertly monitoring nefarious terrorist activity? Well, not exactly. It’s all about catching illegal trash dumpers:

When they find an illegal dumping site, they send a stakeout team to watch the spot so that anyone who tries to dump again in the same place will be caught in the act. Because the dumping takes place in wooded mountainous areas, the cops wear camouflage and sneak around like commandos. [...]

The police stakeout shown in the video drags on for 88 days until they finally arrest one man who is dumping a small load of trash.

Japan Probe has the video clip: Link [embedded Daily Motion, in Japanese, but you'll get the gist]

Police constable Jason Mepham was responding to a disturbance call in Redruth last month when things took a turn for the slapstick.

The officer, confronted by Jason King, whipped out his pepper spray and doused the suspect. Then a second blast blew back into the cop’s eyes, temporarily blinding him, according to The Independent. A second officer grabbed King, but another perp at the scene punched Mepham in the face, dislocating his jaw.

The other officer released King and fired his Taser at the new assailant. One of the electrodes hit the perp, but the other struck Mepham. Mepham collapsed and King allegedly kicked him in the face — strangely relocating the cop’s jaw.

Link

“They were a little freaked out when they saw all the cops at first, but then decided the police would be too distracted, helping kids to notice them,” said police Spokesman Pete Simpson.

Police officers assisted security in making the arrests.

Otherwise, the back-to-school event was a big success. Link -via Fark

I didn’t cry but I jutted my lower lip out the entire way home. It was a genuine sad face. I tried to stop the sad face but I could not. I really love my yellow bike, and it is summer and riding your bike is the best, and also it is my main form of transportation around town. I didn’t know how I was going to be able to afford a new one, and seriously, I was super bummed. It is a material object, yes, and it can be replaced, but it’s MY BIKE AND I LOVE IT.

I sad-faced myself to sleep.

This morning I woke up around 9 AM and checked Craigslist to see if there were any reasonably priced bikes on there and lo and behold, there was a picture of my bike for sale for $75. They even had a picture of the scratches.

The story gets exciting from that point. Her friend did some detective work, and the police set up a sting operation. Then she had to meet the guy who had her bike. It sounds like a television show that wraps up in an hour, and it all happened just today. Link -via Buzzfeed

Adam was accused of stealing chicken nuggets from a $2.60 meal. Those are the nuggets his friend, Gakaree Garner, gave to him. Garner says, "Although that month I was fasting so I couldn’t eat meat, and we had chicken nuggets that day."

Garner gave the nuggets to Adam, who got in the lunch line to get some sauce for them. According to Garner and the police report the cafeteria cashier told the Assistant Principal Adam stole the chicken nuggets. The Assistant Principal then told the police officer in the school, who called a squad car. Garner says, "They actually put him in handcuffs, and actually tried to force him into the car."

Ava Hernandez says, "They were like, ‘Well do you know that friend receives federally free lunch?’, and I said, ‘I do now.’, and they said, ‘Well, it’s illegal to share a free lunch so either way Adam was breaking the law’."

Link

According to police, a short time later the officers were inside the coffee shop ordering at the till when the man they had spoken with outside walked directly up to the till, threw a drink at the employee and demanded cash.

"[The officers] looked at each other in astonishment that someone would attempt that with two uniform officers in the room," Sgt. Bruce Carrie told ctvbc.ca.

Link – via The Consumerist

Plattsburg, Missouri police officer Nick Shepherd responded to a call for help involving a dog stuck in a fence. The wire was twisted, and Shepherd cut the fencing to free the dog. He then tried to capture the dog. What happened next makes it worth sitting through the jumpy footage from Shepherd’s automatic camera. Link -via Buzzfeed

Birds generally rely mostly on sight to locate their supper. But vultures like Sherlock have a keen sense of smell and are able to detect the scent of rotting flesh from 1,000 metres (3,000 feet) up in the air.

He can even find remains in woodland or in thick undergrowth. And unlike sniffer dogs, who need regular breaks, Sherlock is indefatigable and can cover vast tracts of land.[...]

The bird, whose is more at home soaring over South America’s Andes or the Atacama Desert than northern Germany’s Lueneburg Heath, is being taught by trainer German Alonso to love the putrid smell of dead human flesh.

Every day Alonso puts pieces of meat in small cups, on top of a strip of cloth — provided by the police — that has been used to cover a corpse. Sherlock’s mission is to locate these tasty morsels.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: AFP

Officers believe building their new five-gear vehicle, which has a top speed of 20 miles per hour, will help combat anti-social behaviour.[...]

PC Keith Waller, who will pilot the vehicle, spent 40 hours painstakingly building the replica car with children aged 13 to 16 at Ringwood Comprehensive School.

He insisted that getting involved with the project allowed police to show their “fun side” and made them look “cooler” and “more approachable”.

But he also admitted it had made him a laughing stock as people drew comparisons with him and Mr Plod from cartoon series Noddy from Toytown.

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Metro

Every Easter in Stratford, Ontario you can see the swans returning to the Avon River in style. They are escorted from their winter quarters in a fenced area to the water by a parade of bagpipers! The Stratford Police Services pipe band wore kilts and marched to the river while playing music. The swans waddled behind. Link -via Arbroath

A Thai police force has begun taking a monkey dressed in officer’s uniform on patrol each day to help improve relations with Muslim separatists.

Trainers taught Santisuk, which means peace in Thai, to pick up coconuts and he now lends a hand collecting the fruit with residents.

The monkey also helps supervise a police checkpoint and his boss says he has made it a much happier place. Motorists now stop to play with Santisuk, rather than getting angry at the hold-up.

Other forces are now considering introducing monkeys to better their image in the troubled province.

Link

“Less-lethal,” of course, is a term that replaced “non-lethal” because it turns out most rounds being billed as non-lethal – like rubber bullets for instance – are actually quite fatal at close range. Too keep less-lethal intentions from turning into lethal actions, the LVVWS is equipped with a range finder that locates the target and calculates distance; if the shooter is working in less-lethal mode, the rifle ratchets down the muzzle velocity of the round, maintaining its less-lethal status even in close quarters.

Link | Photo: Lund Technologies

There’s just something about a man in uniform. However, most of us don’t throw ourselves at the object of our affection in such a blatant manner. The music adds a special touch to this video. -via YesButNoButYes

The Kenosha, Wisconsin Police Department recorded their own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas using gifts they are accustomed to.

About 20 members of the Police Department were involved in the making of the video, which was directed by Crime Prevention Officer Jeff Wamboldt and edited by Safety Officer Dennis Walsh. Work on the video began in September with filming throughout the month of October; the video was finished before Thanksgiving.

Members of the department hope it helps people laugh amid the stressful holiday season.

Link -via Arbroath

Police cars that are sports cars, smart cars, and off road vehicles from all over the world.

While our cars say something about our personality, they are also tools we use to get a job done. One of those jobs is police work, and sometimes the police cars can be just as unique as our own personalities and the jobs they need to do. Here’s a list of over 30 different police cars from around the world, with everything from exotic sports cars, small mini cars, huge SUV’s off road vehicles, luxury sedans, buses and trailers. Chances are if it’s on the road there’s probably a police force using it.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by digimouse.

This is the seventh year Salinas police have added a giveaway to the Thanksgiving week DUI checkpoint.

It’s become so popular, Salinas police are now asking drivers not to go through the checkpoint more than once just to try to win a turkey.

Police keep the location secret ahead of set up.

The turkeys were donated by police, businesses, and private citizens. Link -via J-Walk Blog

Plates will be compared to databases of stolen or wanted cars, with matches triggering an immediate alert to local officers. If detectives are investigating a crime, they will be able to search the records to try to find possible suspects. [...]

"If it lowers the crime rate even a little bit, then it’s a great idea," said Yami Anolik, a 64-year-old real estate investor whose husband, Al Anolik, spoke in favor of the cameras at the meeting.

She said she did not share the privacy concerns of some of her neighbors, explaining, "If you’re driving on a public road, you gave up your privacy already. If you want to be private, stay at home."

Do you think this is a good idea? Link
(Photo: CJ Sorg [Flickr])

The Dallas Police Department said it was embarrassed by what it calls a mistake by rookie Officer Gary Bromley after he stopped Ernestina Mondragon for making an illegal U-turn.

In addition for being cited for the U-turn violation, Mondragon received another ticket for being a "non-English speaking driver."

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle issued an apology:

"We don’t have abilities to determine proficiency in any language, and we shouldn’t be doing it in the first place," Kunkle said. "I apologize to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community."

After a review of the records, Kunkle said about a half-dozen officers had issued a total of 38 similar citations. He said police would recommend to the courts that any pending cases be dismissed.

Link

Authorities in Mississippi said they had to handcuff an emu and shock it with a Taser to remove the ostrich-like flightless bird from a roadway.

Oh, and they used handcuffs, too. I’m assuming they meant emu legcuffs: Link (Sadly, no photo of the cuffed emu)

“Now, I’ve seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn’t look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head.

Buble decided to humor the old man who didn’t know the address of where he was staying, and gave him a ride to the hotel he described. There were tour buses parked there, and entourage members vouched for Dylan’s identity. They went so far as to produce his passport for the officer.

A police department source said Buble had taken her share of good-natured ribbing from some of the older officers.

“To really appreciate the story from our end, you have to see Kristie,” one cop said. “She looks like a 16-year-old kid, next to this living legend. It was unbelievable.”

Link -via Boing Boing

Natalie went missing Tuesday evening while playing the game with her brother and sisters and the best efforts of neighbors, police and firefighters called by her frantic parents weren’t enough to turn up the tot.

The terrifying ordeal for her parents ended happily after more than an hour of scouring the neighborhood around the 10th Street mobile home park where the Jasmers live.

In the end, it was the family dog that flushed her out.

“Copper found her,” Natalie’s brother Kenny Findley said, crediting the mutt with discovering the tiny girl asleep inside a drawer underneath the washing machine in the family’s home.

Link

Photo via Duo de Hale [Flickr]

A man in Kenya found his dog had ate eaten his rent money. To get even, he brought his dog to the police station and ordered the police to arrest his dog. When they wouldn’t do it, he offered them a “fee” to get them to lock the dog up. The officers put the dog in jail and ended up getting fired for taking a bribe as a result. The dog was returned to his owner who now is trying to sell the pup and trying to figure out how to pay rent.

I’m somehow doubting the landlord will buy the old “my dog ate my rent money” story.

Link

"To Protect and Serve" has taken on a new meaning for the Clare Police Department.

When officers heard that the Clare City Bakery was closing its doors, they protected the business from certain demise.

Now, they’re serving up doughnuts. [...]

In addition to doughnuts, cookies, muffins, brownies, bread, fruit turnovers and other baked goods, the bakery sells mugs and T-shirts bearing the "Cops & Doughtnuts, 100 Percent Cop-Owned" logo on the backs, and "You Have the Right to Remain Glazed," and "Handcuffs and Cream Puffs" on the fronts.

Link | Cops & Doughnuts website

Police Chief Bill Berger says they are a way for the department to have a bird’s eye view of the semi-rural city at minimal cost.

“Because we don’t have a lot of roadway here, this gives us the ability to basically take short cuts,” said Berger.

The vehicles and training cost $10,000 per officer, which is cost-effective compared to using helicopters. And they have other benefits.

Chief Berger sees the gliders as an ideal tool for searching for missing elderly people who have wandered away.

“The problem with helicopters is you can’t go below 1,000 feet,” said Berger. “The canopy of trees in our community prevented the helicopter from seeing a woman who had [died] close to her car. The paragliders would have been able to get much lower.”

Link -via Fark

(image credit: ABC News)

“You could bring your mother’s minivan. You can bring a pure racing car. It doesn’t matter,” said Officer Jose Ayala with the Medley Police Department.

“We’re actually getting a lot of kids and adults alike come here and say, ‘We used to race in Davie. You probably used to chase us around, and now we’re here on the track and we want to race your car,’” said Officer Ron Bradley with the Davie Police.

Officers said they have seen a drastic reduction in illegal street racing since Beat the Heat started in 2007.

The next Beat the Heat race is May 23rd. Link -via reddit

“Being in police work for 32 years, it’s been a standing joke that cops and doughnuts, they go hand-in-hand,” he said. “I just figured that it would be a catchy name.”

Borders said Police Doughnuts is meant to recall a time when officers really did hang out at doughnut shops, whereas today’s police “are all into this fitness crap.”

And what do the police think?

“I have two words for it: hysterical and genius,” said John Keeling, a metro police patrol officer who lives in Eastwood. “I wish I had thought of it.”

Louisville Assistant Chief Troy Riggs said doughnut shops once were the only places open in the middle of the night, which is why officers hung out there, establishing the stereotype.

He thinks that’s outdated now, but “if it helps them do business, good for them,” he said.

Link -via Unique Daily

Remember the story sent by Neatorama reader Chris Whiteoak about Google Street View Car in Bradford, England, that got pulled over by the police? Well, the street view has been released for UK, and Chris noticed that the entire drama was caught on the all-seeing Google’s cam!

Chris walking down the street just before he noticed the police car up the road (pan left to see it in the distance) | Police in pursuit, picking up a fellow policeman | Police pulling over the Google Street View Car

Thanks Chris!

Update 4/7/09 – Seems like this story went everywhere! Besides being featured on Digg‘s front page, Chris told us that a few newspapers also picked it up. Here are the articles on The Sun, The Telegraph and Argus, Daily Mail, and Metro. Of course, none of these fine newspaper even mentioned Neatorama

Howard Witt of Chicago Tribue has the story:

You can drive into this dusty fleck of a town near the Texas-Louisiana border if you’re African-American, but you might not be able to drive out of it—at least not with your car, your cash, your jewelry or other valuables.

That’s because the police here allegedly have found a way to strip motorists, many of them black, of their property without ever charging them with a crime. Instead they offer out-of-towners a grim choice: voluntarily sign over your belongings to the town, or face felony charges of money laundering or other serious crimes.

More than 140 people reluctantly accepted that deal from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother from Akron, who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care, the court documents show. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.

Officials in Tenaha, situated along a heavily traveled highway connecting Houston with popular gambling destinations in Louisiana, say they are engaged in a battle against drug trafficking and call the search-and-seizure practice a legitimate use of the state’s asset-forfeiture law. That law permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

Link

(Photo: Howard Witt/Chicago Tribune)