Florida Cops play Wii Sports During Drug Raid

[MJ4H]

Florida cops in trouble for playing Wii Sports during drug raid

Filed under: Fanboy — hey_suburbia @ 8:22 am

”Certainly this was a case of bad judgment,” Auburndale Police Chief Nolan McLeod said.

With guns drawn and flashlights cutting through darkened rooms, Polk County undercover drug investigators stormed the home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco near Lakeland in March.
As investigators searched the home for drugs, some drug task force members found other ways to occupy their time. Within 20 minutes of entering Difalco’s house, some of the investigators found a Wii video bowling game and began bowling frame after frame.
While some detectives hauled out evidence such as flat screen televisions and shotguns, others threw strikes, gutter balls and worked on picking up spares.
A Polk County sheriff’s detective cataloging evidence repeatedly put down her work and picked up a Wii remote to bowl. When she hit two strikes in a row, she raised her arms above her head, jumping and kicking.
While a female detective lifted a nearby couch looking for evidence, another sheriff’s detective focused on pin action.
But detectives with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Auburndale, Lakeland and Winter Haven police departments did not know that a wireless security camera connected to a computer inside Difalco’s home was recording their activity.
The recording obtained by News Channel 8 showed several members of the county’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force entering the house shortly after 8 a.m. According to the search warrant, their mission was to search for drugs, stolen property and the fruits of any illegal drug activity.
Now there are questions on how the impromptu bowling tournament might affect the case against Difalco.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd denies it will have any effect.
“That absolutely is not true; that doesn’t invalidate the search at all,” Judd said. “Now the defendant would like for it to invalidate the search, but unfortunately for him, it won’t.”
Judd, who watched the video during an interview last week, called the situation an embarrassment.
“I’m not pleased that they played that Wii bowling game,” Judd said. The sheriff’s office oversees the drug task force. Judd said he initiated an internal administrative investigation of the incident.
“That is not appropriate conduct at a search warrant,” he said. “But I am less pleased with the supervision that didn’t walk in and say, turn that off. That’s what supervision should have done.”
Task force members played the video game at various times during the day, for a total of a little over an hour of playing time. The competition proved to be quite competitive at times. A task force supervisor from the Lakeland Police Department, gun at his side, pumped his fist after picking up a strike on the first ball he threw. The video showed he continued bowling frame after frame, competing with another undercover detective.
“Obviously, this is not the kind of behavior we condone,” Lakeland Police Chief Roger Boatner said. “There was a lot of down time, but that does not excuse the fact that we should act as the consummate professionals.”
[TampaBayOnline]




No real comments, just thought it was worth sharing. Obviously disappointing that professionals would do this, but also kind of makes me smile that they blew off a little steam like that. I know it shouldn't but it does.

[Poli]

Super Troopers!

[RomaGoth]

So who won the bowling tournament?

[Brownkeg8]

Just can't get away with anything anymore.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by Poli

Super Troopers!

My thoughts exactly.

[RainMaker]

If you put Florida in the headline, nothing will surprise me.