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Comment by gus_massa | Hacker News Reader

Would you be happy if this random search is extended to homes? What about a lottery every morning where they pick some random point in the map and they go to the home and make a search? What about searching homes because they have a broken light in the porch?

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It's not a random search, it's people running lights and speeding getting stopped and it seems the kinds of people who are in the streets committing crimes that actually hurt people have a tendency to not obey traffic laws.

Even if that's true, the percentage of people who commit traffic violations that are violent criminals is still extremely small, making it effectively a random search.

People who commit crimes are probably more likely to get parking tickets too. Should police search the homes of everyone who gets a parking ticket since there's a slightly increased chance they'll find evidence of a crime by doing that?

Yep, this guy solved it - let's let all our streets devolve to Mumbai roads level madness because apparently it's unfair for police to stop cars for such "minor" infractions such as speeding.

I said they should send fines through the mail instead of stopping people for minor things. How does that lead to "madness"? If anything the deterrent would be even stronger since police could give more fines if they didn't have to waste so much time pulling people over.

Yes, if someone is speeding on the streets and a police officer sees that - that's fine, let them go, we'll send them the bill later.

Of course, they might catch a few mothers with prams on their way to said home, but that's a reasonable price to pay for not wasting so much time pulling people over!

Are you under the impression that people pulled over for speeding are immediately removed from their cars and taken to jail? As opposed to, say, being stopped for 15 minutes, given a ticket, then allowed to go on their way. How’s that end up any differently for those poor mothers and their prams in your little GTA fantasy?

It's a lot more different - you're very unlikely to continue speeding immediately after you got the zing of a fine and some points on your licence.

It's not about wasting time. Take a look at this vide: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/crime/2014/09/25/dnt-trooper-...

Did anyone in the video get killed? Did anyone in the video go to jail? How many mother with prams do you think he would have killed?

Police having poor training, being too trigger happy and having very little repercussions for having done terrible things is a completely different topic.

There's no laws for having a light on your porch. Police can however enter a house if they hear sounds of distress from the inside.

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