Scenario / Critical Thinking - Drug Surveillance Case

Law Enforcement Operations

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Instructions

For this assignment, you will need to answer or address the following situation and questions. To begin, you will need to create a Word Document and save it to your personal files. Using that document, respond to the following.

You have been recently assigned to the department's narcotics unit.You and your new partner have been conducting surveillance on a local drug dealing ring that is suspected of receiving their drugs directly with a large Mexican cartel. Your Unit commander ask made this case a priority, and has assigned your new partner to conduct surveillance of a location the local ring usually operates. The hope is that you can identify players and make arrests that could lead to the Mexican Cartel.

The unit has set up a surveillance location in a nearby second floor apartment, with a view of most of the street. You return from a short break when your partner tells you that he observed a suspected Mexican Cartel member making a deal with a lieutenant of your local drug ring.Unfortunately, your partners says the deal was not captured on your video surveillance equipment. But your partner is sure he witnessed a transaction consistent with a drug sale and trusting your partners information is correct, the two of you go down to the street and after a few minutes, locate the local drug ring lieutenant and arrest him for sale of narcotics.

Immediately after the arrest, you conduct you conduct a quick search of him incident to arrest but find no evidence in your patdown. Wanting to get out of the area quickly, you and partner get the suspect back to the police station and into the interrogation room hoping he may be willing to divulge some important information.You go to the shift commander's office to briefly report in what occurred.When you return to the interrogation area, your partner says that while you were away, he had secured the suspect I the interrogation room and took his bag and jacket to be secured separately.While securing the suspects jacket, he found a small bag of meth in the pocket.

Your partner believes that this evidence will provide some much needed leverage to get the suspect to talk.Your partner wants him to sit for a few minutes, before you both go in an interrogate him on his activity and the possible connection with the Mexican Cartel. Perhaps the District Attorney will agree not to prosecute your suspect, in exchange for his cooperation against the Cartel.

• Should you talk to your partner first about doubts that you have with this arrest?
• Should you ask him where the bag of meth came from?
• Do you communicate these doubts to your superiors?
• What do you do if your superiors dismiss your doubts and encourage you to make the arrest by any means necessary?
• What do you risk by continuing in this action? Does the end justify the means?
• Is there a way that you can legally and ethically turn this into a prosecutable arrest?