CHIEF'S SIGN EXPERIMENT MAY NOT FLY FOR LONG

The sign experiment probably isn't going to fly. But give Police Chief
Dan Parkinson credit for trying to insert a new wrinkle in his
department's struggle to control the low-level drug trade that infests
this city.

Parkinson came up with the bright but somewhat off-the-wall idea of
erecting a "Drug Search Warrant" sign outside residences raided by his
street crime unit.

The first sign went up on Wednesday afternoon.

The first protest was aired Thursday morning by the Canadian Civil
Liberties Association. No surprise.

And now the Ontario Information Privacy Commissioner is investigating
the issue.

You can bet the commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, will not be embracing the
program as a great crime-fighting tool.

Apparently, even drug dealers, the ones who operate out of their
homes, are entitled to privacy and to Hades with the law-abiding neighbours.

The idea that people arrested on drug charges are entitled to privacy
is bogus.

Their names appear in police blotters. Suspects appear in public
court.

And just about everybody in the neighbourhood knows what is going on
at the address.

The big giveaway is the constant traffic in and out of the
house.

So how can a sign posted outside a home that is raided be an invasion
of an accused person's privacy?