Posted on 12/18/2008 11:07:31 AM PST by Ives99
A key D.C. councilwoman expressed concern Wednesday about a new executive order from Mayor Adrian Fenty that appears to grant Police Chief Cathy Lanier broad authority to issue subpoenas.
The order, signed quietly by Fenty last month and posted on the city’s Web site last week, gives the chief the power to probe “any municipal matter” and allows Lanier to delegate her subpoena power “to her subordinates.”
Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, a constitutional law professor and former prosecutor, wrote a letter Wednesday to Fenty, asking him to explain the order.
“I have grave concerns over the prospect that this authority may serve as an attempt to make an end-run around the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement,” Cheh wrote in the letter, obtained by The Examiner. “To permit the chief of police to issue subpoenas would essentially convert the Metropolitan Police Department into a form of Grand Jury.”
Attorney General Peter Nickles told The Examiner he didn’t know anything about the new order and declined comment. Rank-and-file members of the police department are worried that the chief will use her new powers to hunt down dissenters, union official Delroy Burton told The Examiner.
“It’s an extraordinarily broad authority and it’s dangerous,” Burton said. “It’s unprecedented.”
D.C. only has the authority to prosecute misdemeanors and juvenile offenses. Otherwise, it must rely on the U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate crimes and to issue subpoenas.
A law enforcement source told The Examiner that the Fenty administration reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office while crafting the order. Fenty was worried because his regulatory agencies couldn’t move faster in prosecuting low-level criminal cases like housing violations.
(Excerpt) Read more at dcexaminer.com ...
Related thread:
MSNBC host [Mika] Brzezinski mugged in D.C.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2150948/posts
Awwwww, what’s a little “Police State” among friends?
Fenty was mugged this morning. Coincidence??????????
I wonder if Cheh has "grave concerns that DC's new Gun Rules may serve as an attempt to make an end-run around the SECOND Amendment"???
This is a trial balloon for the Obama administration.
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