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Comment by rm_-rf_slash | Hacker News Reader

The solution quite simple: when the suspect had evidence of wrongdoing (drugs, etc), they pay for the cost of the procedure.

When the suspect does not have evidence of a crime, they should be reimbursed. I am all right with a legitimate search warrant giving law enforcement the right to tear my house inside and out, but after it is established that they found nothing, I can bill them for the clean-up, as well as any lost time from work.

To me the biggest problem with law enforcement today is that there is no punishment for being wrong, even when lives and families can be shredded in the process. We have malpractice insurance for doctors, why not cops?

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Politics, mainly. Professional liability insurance would help solve a lot of the problems (if not entirely, then at least somewhat), but I can't think of a single policy police unions would fight more. And once they roped in other public-sector unions to help them fight (in the name of solidarity, of course), it'd quickly turn into a quagmire of epic proportions. There's an effort to get such a measure on the ballot in Minnesota, but success is unlikely [0].

0. https://ballotpedia.org/City_of_Minneapolis_Police_Brutality...

Erm, why should any suspect ever be paying for a procedure they did not order nor consent to?

"Don't fight it son. Confess quickly! If you hold out too long you could jeopardize your credit rating."

Or "go ahead and search me. You'll find nothing but a bill for my next vacation."

In the context of TFA this is more like being paid for work as a sub.

Also the cops and doctors who were committing unethical acts as part of this scam should be disciplined and/or removed from duty.

Am I too far off base?

I don't know much about medical sonography but they should be able to detect something without invasive searching.

They need a warrant for anything more than a surface check, period. The core of the problem is abuse of authority without a warrant.

Fines to the government and hospital aren't enough to prevent the abuse. The abusers need to be disciplined.

Just take a cut of the lawsuit damages out of the police pension pool. You would be surprised how quickly things can change when one's retirement is at stake.

Why punish the other officers? Wouldn't it make more sense to put the offending LEO in jail and/or fire him/her?

Because much of the most egregious police misconduct isn't the cause of the rare bad apple alone, it's the blue wall of silence that has officers looking out for each other more than the general public. If everyone suffers, even a small amount, the tolerance for misconduct will plummet.

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