In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, on Interstate 85, law enforcement officials cease automobiles for touring within the left lane whereas not actively passing, touching the white fog line, or following too intently. This annual crackdown is named Operation Rolling Thunder, and the police demand perfection.
Any infraction, regardless of how minor, can result in a roadside interrogation and warrantless search. Nonetheless, a 21-month combat for transparency exhibits taking part businesses play free with South Carolina’s Freedom of Info Act (FOIA), which requires the federal government to carry out its enterprise in an “open and public method.”
Motorists should comply with state legal guidelines with exactness. However the individuals accountable for enforcement give themselves a move.
Deny, Deny, Deny
The drawn-out FOIA dispute began on October 11, 2022, lower than one week after a five-day blitz that produced almost $1 million in money seizures. Our public-interest legislation agency, the Institute for Justice, requested entry to incident reviews for all 144 automobile searches that occurred in the course of the joint operation involving 11 businesses: The Cherokee, Florence, Greenville, and Spartanburg County sheriff’s workplaces; the Duncan, Gaffney, and Wellford police departments; the South Carolina Freeway Patrol, Regulation Enforcement Division, and State Transport Police; and the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety.
Our intent was easy. We needed to verify for constitutional violations, which may multiply within the rush to drag over and search as many automobiles as potential inside a set timeframe. South Carolina businesses have carried out the operation yearly since 2006, but nobody has ever carried out a scientific audit.
Relatively than adjust to its FOIA obligation, Spartanburg County denied our request with out citing any provision within the legislation. We tried once more after which recruited the assistance of South Carolina resident and lawyer Adrianne Turner, who filed a 3rd request in 2023.
It took a lawsuit to lastly pry the data free. Turner filed the particular motion with outdoors illustration.
Key Findings
The incident reviews, launched in batches from March by way of July 2024, present why Spartanburg County was keen to stop anybody from acquiring them.
- Over 72 p.c of auto searches throughout Operation Rolling Thunder in 2022 produced nothing unlawful. Officers routinely handled harmless drivers like criminals.
- Carrying any amount of money is authorized, however officers handled foreign money as contraband. The data describe no single case wherein officers discovered a considerable amount of money and didn’t seize it. All cash was presumed soiled.
- Officers pressured property homeowners to signal roadside abandonment kinds, giving up claims to their money on the spot.
- South Carolina residents largely acquired a move. Officers targeted on automobiles with out-of-state plates, rental automobiles, and industrial buses. Over 83 p.c of the felony suspects recognized throughout warrantless searches lived out of state. Practically half have been from Georgia.
- Black vacationers have been particularly weak. Practically 74 p.c of the suspects recognized and 75 p.c of the individuals arrested have been black. That is greater than triple the South Carolina black inhabitants of 25 p.c.
Working within the Shadows
Whereas these data shine a light-weight on police conduct, nonetheless extra secrets and techniques stay.
By coverage, the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Workplace and associate businesses don’t create incident reviews for each search. They solely doc their “wins” once they discover money or contraband. They don’t doc their “losses” once they come up empty.
Due to this coverage, Spartanburg County has no data for 102 of the 144 searches that occurred throughout Operation Rolling Thunder in 2022. Nowhere do officers describe how they gained possible trigger to enter the automobiles the place nothing was discovered. The police open and shut investigations after which act just like the searches by no means occurred.
This leaves authorities watchdogs at nighttime—by design. They can’t examine public data that don’t exist. Victims can’t cite them in litigation. And police supervisors can’t assessment them when evaluating job efficiency.
Even when physique digital camera video exists, there isn’t a paper path. This lack of recordkeeping undercuts the intent of FOIA. Businesses dodge accountability by merely not summarizing their embarrassing or probably unconstitutional conduct.
The rigged system is rife with abuse. Obtainable data present that officers routinely order drivers to exit their automobiles and sit within the entrance seat of a patrol automobile. If individuals present indicators of “labored respiration,” “nervousness,” or being “visibly shaken,” the police depend this towards possible trigger.
Officers overlook that nervousness is regular when trapped in a police cruiser with out permission to depart. Even individuals who worth their Fourth Modification proper to be “safe of their individuals, homes, papers, and results, towards unreasonable searches and seizures” can break beneath stress and consent to a search.
If vacationers refuse, officers can convey K9 models to the scene for open-air sniffs. Having no medicine within the automobile doesn’t at all times assist. False positives occurred throughout Operation Rolling Thunder, however the lack of recordkeeping makes an entire audit inconceivable.
Intimidation, harassment, and misjudgment are simply hidden. The police inform vacationers: “If in case you have nothing to cover, you need to allow us to search.” However when the roles are reversed and the general public asks questions, businesses abruptly wish to stay silent.
