Police, DEA Granted Broad Access to Residents' Utility Records

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By Sam Friedman - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner / sfriedman@newsminer.com

Story Created: Aug 9, 2012 at 8:54 AM AKDT

Story Updated: Aug 9, 2012 at 8:54 AM AKDT

FAIRBANKS — A judge or grand jury is not needed to force a utility cooperative to give police utility records of suspected pot growers, according to a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion reached Tuesday in a case involving Golden Valley Electric Association and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In late 2010, the DEA served the Fairbanks electricity co-op with a subpoena demanding the power consumption and payment records for three customers. GVEA resisted, citing a policy of protecting customers’ records.

U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline sided with the DEA’s authority to get the information with a subpoena, based on the DEA’s authority under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970.

In GVEA’s appeal to the 9th Circuit, Washington attorney Joe Evans argued the utility should be able to invoke its customers’ Fourth Amendment protection from search and seizure to refuse the DEA request without a probable cause search warrant from a judge.

In an unanimous published opinion, the three-judge panel of appeals judges disagreed.

“A customer ordinarily lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in an item,” like a business record, “in which he has no possessory or ownership interest,” wrote Judge William Fletcher, citing a 2000 case involving motel registration records.

The court also agreed with the DEA that electricity records were relevant to a drug investigation because higher-than-usual electricity use can be a sign of lamps used to grow marijuana. The court also ruled that the request for the records of three customers was not “overly broad.”

The names of the GVEA customers are not given in the court opinion. The utility was forced to comply the subpoena while the case was being appealed because both district and appeals courts refused to delay the subpoena.

The only remaining venue to appeal the decision is the U.S. Supreme Court. Reached Wednesday evening, Evans said GVEA has not yet decided whether to ask the Supreme Court to take the case. The high court takes very few cases and would be less likely to take this one because it takes mostly cases where appeals courts opinions go against precedent, he said. Most lower courts have found that utility records do not get Fourth Amendment protections, as the 9th Circuit did in this case.

Contact Fairbanks Daily News-Miner staff writer Sam Friedman at 907-459-7545. Follow him on Twitter, @FDNMcrime.
 

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pionyr17 said on Monday, Sep 10 at 1:29 PM

we adopted nazi intelligence agents into our government right after WWll.we have watched while every right we have has been abrogated {or destroyed)and we've lost every gain and benefit our grandfathers suffered and sacrificed for.all so corporations can have it all,as they have clearly demonstrated there is no end or limit to greed. once set free as it has been we are all going to suffer and what we have seen is nothing to what is coming.privacy....are you kidding?? it doesnt exist not in america.i spent 6 years in the USMC for what....oil companies to profit and murder and poison ecosystems, you dont think they'll stop at this do you?they will not and they ar4e doing much more that is not known yet.

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Wes Craske said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 5:06 PM

People get your practice now while you still have a chance: Learn every survival tactic and how to work together. Obamacare can only be brought down now by refusal and guile. Let there be no doubt: This law will bankrupt this nation and the world with it.

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Dontyouworryboutit said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 12:52 PM

A little more like nazi Germany everyday.

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Molon said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 10:53 AM

No 4th Amendment anymore huh?

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Oophelia Smunch said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 10:25 AM

Every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints....

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Anonymous said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 10:22 AM

if they want to help now .they can call there costomers when the dea gets nosie

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Truth said on Thursday, Aug 9 at 10:00 AM

Mother nature is not a criminal.

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