LINCOLN, Neb.-
A prison employee is questioning random searches of employee vehicles, and says he is prepared to sue to prove the searches are unconstitutional.
Brian True, an officer at the Lincoln Correctional Center, said the searches violate the Fourth Amendment, which bans unreasonable searches and seizures.
“This is a very fundamental right,” said True, who has worked more than 12 years as a corrections department employee. “I don’t want the king quartering troops in my home, either.”
The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services started the searches a few years ago as part of an effort to keep prisons safe and contraband out.
“Everything we do is interdiction strategy,” said Corrections Department spokesman Steve King. “It’s a way for us to control what’s going on in our facilities.”
True said employees have the right to refuse the searches, but then risk suspension without pay.
“There are very fine (legal) parameters in doing searches that I think they’re crossing,” said True, who said he has consented to two searches of his car this year “under duress.”
King said few employees have opposed the searches.
True filed a complaint with the Nebraska Ombudsman’s office in January.
A letter from Ombudsman Marshall Lux to Corrections Director Robert Houston last week said a “reasonable argument can be made” for the searches, but suggested the department specifically justify the searches to employees and possibly judges, and show the searches are random.
A federal appeals court ruled in favor of a former prison employee in Florida in a similar case in 2003.
Derrick Wiley, who was a teacher in a Miami federal prison, was fired for initially refusing to allow his vehicle to be searched in the prison parking lot. Wiley drove away, then came back and consented to the search. He was fired for refusing the first search.
The appeals court ruled that prison officials violated the Fourth Amendment and had no reasonable suspicion to do the search.
“I want Wiley reaffirmed here,” said True, who plans to meet with an attorney. “I’m prepared to go to federal court to do it.”
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star,
