A U.S. District Court judge ordered the Kansas Highway Patrol to pay $2.34 million in attorney fees and other costs following a successful challenge to constitutionality of the state law enforcement agency’s practice of detaining motorists and searching vehicles without establishing reasonable suspicion.
KHP attorneys argued detaining motorists with the “two-step” maneuver was a legal and appropriate action in the war on illegal drugs.
U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Vratil, following jury trials in which verdicts were returned against KHP, issued a permanent injunction in November forbidding the agency from continuing to rely on policies that unconstitutionally transformed basic traffic stops into lengthy vehicle searches by drug-sniffing dogs.
Somehow NO ONE in Kansas Law Enforcement, the Kansas Police Union, the Sheriff's departments, the many city police departments, the Kansas district attorneys, the Kansas Capitol Police, the state Attorney General, the university law professors, the law students, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers' Standards and Training, the Kansas Department of Transportation, Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, Kansas Sheriff’s Association, Kansas County and District Attorneys Association, Kansas Peace Officers Association, Kansas Fraternal Order of Police, Kansas Crime Stoppers Association, nor any of the other 371 law enforcement agencies employing 7,450 sworn police officers, about 266 for each 100,000 residents, had enough courage or integrity to take the matter up and denounce the unconstitutional policy of the highway patrol violating the civil rights of the people, and BREAKING the HIGHEST LAW which is the constitution, and their oaths of office.
Shame on them all for standing by while bullies in badges committed the civil rights violation of their families, neighbors, classmates, co-workers, and fellow Americans.
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