Cleveland police criticised as city asks: why were women not found sooner?

[Xithras]

37. No, they couldn't have

A search warrant has to be approved by a judge and list the specific crime being investigated AND the type of evidence they're seeking in the search. No judge would ever approve a search warrant issued simply because the neighbors thought a person was "suspicious" and the police wanted to "check it out". Nor should they issue them.

"Drug activity" is a specific crime, and a warrant could be issued for it assuming that there was actually evidence of drug deals (drug traffic spotted, drug arrests from people coming out of the home, etc). You can't get a warrant simply because a neighbor says "I think they sell drugs". Same goes with prostitution, or child abuse.

"Strange noises" aren't even a crime. Even with solid evidence of those noises, you can't show criminal activity and can't get a warrant. You would need ACTUAL evidence (or at least reasonable suspicion with circumstantial evidence) that a kidnapping victim was inside before you could get a warrant to enter the house and check.

The blame being heaped on the local PD seems unwarranted to me. Unless there's more that they aren't telling us, it doesn't seem like there was much they could have done.