Freedom Lawyers of America

Posted on Sun, Dec. 08, 2002

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/4691498.htm
Belleville inspectors and armed police officers show up without
search warrants to check for occupancy code violations, and ticket people
who don't let them in -- a practice experts say is unconstitutional.
BY GEORGE PAWLACZYK
Belleville News-Democrat and Beth Hundsdorfer
EDITED FOR BREVITY

Invite friends over, babysit your grandchildren or allow
relatives to spend the night in Belleville and you risk an armed police
officer turning up at your door to search your home and give you a ticket.
Enforcement teams consisting of a housing inspector and a police
officer do not obtain search warrants before showing up to check for
occupancy code violations, a Belleville News-Democrat investigation found.
Most residents give their permission to come in, although
reluctantly, and those who don't usually are charged. Sometimes they simply
walk in.
Jim Reese said he was standing in his kitchen when he heard a
noise at 7 a.m. and found a housing inspector and police officer standing in
his living room.
"I wanted to know who walked in without permission," he said.
"They didn't answer me. They just started walking through the place."
Such aggressive enforcement of a city law designed to prevent
overcrowding violates the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unlawful
search and seizure, legal experts say.
"I think the way they are using the housing ordinance is
unconstitutional," said Jamie Carey, a law professor at Loyola University.
"I think it's just a way to get around the Fourth Amendment."
"You can't come in without a search warrant," said William
Schroeder, a professor and expert in federal law at Southern Illinois
University Carbondale. "The Supreme Court decided a case on this that is
right on point. It's based on the Fourth Amendment. And you can't arrest
anyone for refusing a search without a search warrant."
Belleville attorney Bruce Cook said: "If they suspect you of
something, then they can go to a police officer and get an affidavit and
then get a search warrant. Your home is protected by the Fourth Amendment."
In more than 30 interviews, residents said officials show up
without warrants and ticket people, sometimes for just having visitors.
While many times the tickets were justified because of significant
overcrowding, others were given for everyday events.
A young mother who works two jobs was ticketed because the
elderly couple she hired to babysit were not listed on her occupancy permit.
A man who agreed to house sit for a friend in the Air Force who was overseas
was cited when he was found alone in the house.
In 70 percent of cases, documented in city records since 1999,
housing inspectors, called compliance officers, and uniformed police offcers
have gone into homes in the city's poorest areas -- around Hough Park, in
the Franklin neighborhood and near downtown.
Ninety-five percent of these surprise inspections were at rental
housing.
City officials say enforcement of occupancy and housing codes is
crucial to prevent overcrowding and unsanitary conditions, and to keep the
city's housing stock from deteriorating.