Authorities Turn On the Heat to Catch Criminals

Investigation: Appeals Court Upholds Law Enforcement's Use Of Thermal
Imaging Device To Apprehend Two Men Found Guilty Of Growing Marijuana In A
Thousand Oaks Home.

It started with a tip to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department that two
men were cultivating marijuana inside a four-bedroom home in a quiet
Thousand Oaks neighborhood.

During a six-week investigation, detectives began to suspect that the men
were nurturing an illegal crop with high-wattage light bulbs. Police used a
thermal-imaging device to monitor heat levels rising from the house.

After the power company confirmed that large amounts of electricity were
being illegally diverted into the home, deputies obtained a search warrant
and seized 230 marijuana plants on July 11, 1997.

It was one of the county's largest indoor narcotics busts.

But it also yielded a unique legal challenge in which the defendants argued
that the search warrant was illegally obtained because it relied on
information, including the results of the heat-seeking device, that
violated their privacy rights.

Last month, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of
David Singerman, 48, of North Hollywood and Jack Stanley, 51, of Malibu,
who owned the Ventura County residence.

Singerman's attorney said Tuesday that she plans to appeal the matter to
the California Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, officials at the Ventura County Sheriff's Department are
cheering the decision, which found their investigative techniques fell
within the state's legal boundaries.

"If we are affirmed by the court," Sheriff Bob Brooks said Tuesday, "we
know that we are on pretty solid ground."

But Brooks said his department is aware that investigative techniques such
as thermal imaging have come under fire in courtrooms across the country
for being too invasive.

Most courts have found that the use of these devices does not violate
privacy rights. But a small group of federal judges has rejected that view.

Brooks says the department takes a conservative approach and is "very, very
conscious of the privacy interests of citizens."

But the challenge for law enforcement remains in outsmarting criminals who
are increasingly using high-tech equipment to produce drugs in remote areas
of county, he said.

In recent years, narcotics teams have discovered large-scale
marijuana-growing operations tucked deep in the Ventura County back country.

Methamphetamine labs have also popped up in rural barns and orchards. Last
year, authorities raided an operation near Camarillo that they suspect was
set up by a Los Angeles drug ring.

"One of the things you have to look at with technology is you can't ignore
it, because the criminals use it," Brooks said. "We are constantly
pressured."

The department started using thermal-imaging devices about eight years ago
as a search-and-rescue tool.

Initially developed by the military, the infrared devices produce a picture
in shades of gray. Objects emitting heat show up as white images. For this
reason, these devices are commonly used on helicopters to look for missing
people or to track suspects at night.

But in the past three years, the devices have evolved into a new tool for
narcotics squads trying to bust marijuana-growing operations.

Since growing marijuana indoors requires the use of intense lighting, the
devices can be pointed at a house to detect higher-than-normal heat levels.

Capt. Dennis Carpenter, who heads the department's narcotics unit, said the
scanners are used only in cases where authorities have already obtained
information about a possible pot nursery.

"We aren't going to go out and point a thermal imager at your home and use
it to get a search warrant and kick your door down," he said.

For indoor marijuana production, growers must have heat lamps running
through a 24-hour cycle, he said.

"And when you are running 200-plus plants in the home, you are going to
have a significantly high electric bill," Carpenter said.

When detectives check with the power company and learn that the amount of
electricity is substantially above normal, they can then use thermal
imaging as one more way to determine if illegal growing may be occurring,
he said.

That was the case in the Thousand Oaks bust, according to the appellate
court's decision.

About two months before Stanley and Singerman were arrested, an informant
told a detective that Singerman was growing marijuana in a Ventura County
home--triggering an initial surveillance, court records show.

Deputies watched Stanley's 1,900-square-foot house on Calle Pimiento in
Thousand Oaks for several weeks. They observed very little activity and
concluded that the house was not being used a residence.

Without obtaining a warrant, a deputy scanned the house with a
thermal-imaging device and observed vast amounts of heat escaping from the
roof, according to the appellate court decision.

Four days later, Det. Lori Erickson contacted Southern California Edison.
Billing records showed nothing out of the ordinary. At Erickson's request,
Edison installed a surveillance meter on a utility pole in the backyard of
the house, the decision said.

The meter revealed that electricity was being illegally diverted into the
home and, based on that information, Erickson obtained a search warrant.
Deputies found marijuana plants as tall as 4 feet and a sophisticated
track-lighting system.

Stanley and Singerman were charged with cultivating marijuana and
possessing marijuana for sale. Before trial, their attorneys filed motions
to suppress evidence, which were denied. They each pleaded guilty to a
single count of cultivating marijuana.

Stanley was ordered to serve 120 days in county jail. Singerman was ordered
to serve 90 days. Each was placed on probation for three years, but both
sentences were suspended pending appeal.

Appellant attorneys for the men were unavailable for comment Tuesday. But
in briefs to the court, they argued that the search warrant was obtained
using "illegal, warrantless" information.

They describe the actions by law enforcement as based on "a stale,
uncorroborated tip" and a violation of their clients' privacy rights
because the utility pole was in Stanley's backyard.

But San Luis Obispo County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey E. Burke, who has
been temporarily sitting on the appellate court, disagreed. He maintained
that the pole belonged to the power company--not Stanley.

As for the issue of thermal imaging, he wrote: "The crucial inquiry is
whether the technology employed by the government reveals intimate details
about objects or activities inside the home. The technology used here did
not peer inside Stanley's house or otherwise penetrate its inner sanctum."