By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A seemingly-innocent offer by the police chief in Beloit, Wis., to allow officers to search private homes for “illegal” guns almost immediately turned into a political hot potato, and as a result, the offer was quickly rescinded.
The announcement came from the office of City Manager Larry N. Arft. The three-paragraph statement noted that, “While the program was strictly voluntary and required a signed release before police could enter a residence, numerous individuals have expressed concerns about the fact that people’s homes would be inspected or searched as part of the process.”
Beloit Police Chief Norm Jacobs drew plenty of criticism from firearms owners across the country for the suggestion. Beloit is a community on the border between Wisconsin and Illinois.
In telephone interview with TGM, Arft said the initial announcement by Chief Jacobs noted that there would have to be a signed release from the homeowner or tenant before an officer would enter the premises. That, however, seemed to disappear in the discussion to the point that Arft said the proposal, “got grossly misrepresented in the social media.”
Arft said the chief’s proposal was not submitted to the legal office for review before it went public. Now that the plan has been withdrawn, even though the press release said that the department would be submitting the plan to the legal office “for further review,” Arft indicated it probably will not be resurrected.
He noted that there is already a mechanism for people to report guns to police to have them removed from private property.
“Police departments have been doing that for decades,” Arft said. “The option has always been out there and we don’t need to go searching in someone’s house to provide that service.”
The chief’s comment that “gun violence” is comparable to an Ebola outbreak was just one of the problems people have expressed with the idea. Primarily, gun owners are concerned with Jacobs’ interest in getting people to open their doors to police searches without warrants.
Jacobs’ claim that his officers might find guns that nobody knew were in the house did not gain traction with critics of the plan. He also suggested that these voluntary searches could help keep children safe. The chief acknowledged that his telephone probably would not ring off the hook.
There has been no indication that residents of the city have volunteered to let police search their homes.
According to the Washington Times, the city has reported only seven gun-related homicides this year, but Arft said there had been eight, of which six involved firearms. At the time of the interview, the city had logged 51 shooting incidents, he added.
Beloit has about 37,000 residents.
Arft said the program “was certainly well meaning,” and that there was never an intention of launching legal fishing expeditions into private residences. Besides, he noted that there would have been serious legal questions about the validity of any evidence of unrelated crimes that might be uncovered in such a search.
