Ordinance #2740( An unfunded city-wide mandate) was passed with a resounding 6 to 1 vote, and it allows for the citizens of Cedar Falls to forcefully give the government keys to their comercial properties through universal ‘lock boxes’. The intent of the program is to provide increased safety and protection to personal, private property which include businesses, apartments and some rental houses– which by the way– comes at the expense of furthering wayward erosion of fundamental constitutional rights.
I’d like to know how putting the keys to your building in a universally accessible box will increase safety and protection? You might as well be hanging the key on a hook right outside the door.
The amazing thing is that the City Council doubled down in the face of resident outrage and passed this outrageous law.
What a Novel Way to bypass the need to obtain a Search Warrant! Now, with the Implied Consent given to the City to enter those Properties w/o the need to go in front of a Judge, those Renters who don’t know that their Landlord has abrogated their Right Against Unreasonable Search and Seizure can have Police-Sponsored Surprise Parties just like the Late Jose Guerena!
Looks like some politicians need to be recalled.
The amazing thing is that everyone involved thinks that’s legal. A municipality is not an autonomous entity–it’s just an incorporation under state law, much like the organizations whose “private” property it seeks to confiscate. A town council is no more able to violate the restrictions of the state’s founding documents than a state’s legislature, or the federal government. Pretty much everyone in government is making it up as they go along these days.
Merely starting the recall process will cost these clowns their jobs.
No one survives even an unsuccessful recall.
Over the water here we always though America was the land ‘of the free’ where individual rights were protected, how wrong we were. Although what’s to stop you giving them the keys, then changing your locks ?, do they check every so often ?
If they don’t check, even better would be to give them some random key. Maybe that one in the junk drawer that belonged to a long since discarded rusty padlock.
If ever there was a time for the challenge, “Come and get it!” this would be it.
Tyrannical bastards. To the councilcritter talking about government “rights”: No, dickhead, government has no “right” to anything. It only has powers that are delegated by the people, and those powers are revocable.
Seems it’s time to revoke some.
What I found amazing was the emotional control exhibited by the residents in the face of such blatant disregard for decency, much less legality or constitutionality. The statements by the councilgoblins reeked of the “banality of evil”.
I believe that this case is related in a roundabout way to the various scandals (the most recent of which is the Weiner folderol) caused by elected representatives with severe narcissism and no self-control. The wannabe royals (who died and made them king?) of the council *cannot* see any perspective except their own narrow interests, and so will propose onerous regs/laws merely to make their own lives easier. One wonders how they will top this, but one shouldn’t be surprised by whatever that will be.
Without having read the text of the bill or watched the video (slow connection tonight), I’m going to go *slightly* against the grain here.
Research the “knox box” brand of key vaults. They are a pretty standard setup where a master key – that is kept in a controlled-access vault of its own – can open the knox box on the building, where the customer-provided keys are kept.
This kind of legislation/building code is nothing new, and in many cases it’s a response to multiple lawsuits from businesses and landlords who install alarm systems but refuse to respond to an alarm to provide access for the fire or police department. The police department generally is happy if the doors are locked, but the fire department needs to be able to check for a smoldering fire – and we WILL find a way in, usually at the cost of a door. The business owners would turn around and sue the fire department and/or municipality for damage to property.
I’m not saying that building codes are the *right* way to do this – but I also understand where they are coming from.
I would pay for a new door long before i would give any government agency the keys to my house/business. I would be too worried that the police would at some time take the fact that i gave them a key to be the same as me waving my rights and they can come in and do a quick, or not so quick, look around.
If i lived there, they would get the wrong keys, and the box would be filled with cement/epoxy/something.
I can see providing keys to public areas – courtyards, clubhouses, the sort of public areas that some large and upscale complexes offer – and to utility and equipment areas. Not a master key to all the apartments. And who gets sued when someone hacks or picks the lock on the Knox Box or other “secure” key depot, then goes through the business or residences?
I’m with markofafreeman….give them a useless key and, if they try to use it & break down the door, sue the heck out of them…
My city uses the Knox Box system. Never heard of any abuses. If you don’t want to participate, expect frequent fire and/or code inspections of your business. At the business I retired from, the Knox Box access did not bypass the independent alarm system.