A dragnet is any system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects; including road

barricade Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denot ...

s and

traffic stop A traffic stop, commonly referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle by police to investigate a possible crime or minor violation of law. United States A traffic stop is usually considered to be a ...

s, widespread DNA tests, and general increased police alertness. The term derives from a fishing technique of dragging a

fishing net A fishing net is a Net (device), net used for fishing. Nets are devices made from fibers woven in a grid-like structure. Some fishing nets are also called fish traps, for example #Fyke nets, fyke nets. Fishing nets are usually meshes formed by ...

across the sea bottom, or through a promising area of open water. It is also an aspect of trench warfare. Meaning that prolonged engagements like those during WW1 could produce a battlefield that looks and interlocks with situations that are virtually indistinguishable from dragnets set up by regular police. While a dragnet can refer to any kind of focused police presence, the traditional definition involves defining an area (such as a building or a city block) and/or category (such as those of a specific ethnic group within an area) and conducting at least a brief investigation of each person within. Thus, if a criminal is traced to a specific location, everyone in that location might be searched for incriminating evidence. Since the 1950s, such "dragnets" have generally been held to be unconstitutional as unreasonable search and seizure actions. While traditional "stop and frisk" dragnets have largely fallen into disuse, New York's strategy for controlling serious crime by stopping many of those loitering in areas that such loitering is thought to be associated with lesser crimes has been called a dragnet. Similarly, controversy remains over other activities held to be dragnets as well. An active area of legal controversy, for example, is that of warrantless wiretaps. If all cell phones are monitored by machine for certain words or phrases thought to be associated with terrorism, and the results are used to cue focused investigations, the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

argues that to constitute a kind of dragnet. A large, highly publicized dragnet occurred in and around Boston after the 2013 marathon race bombing. A dragnet that caught worldwide attention was conducted by French law enforcement after the

Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...

, which killed twelve people in January 2015.

References

Law enforcement techniques {{Law-enforcement-stub de:Rasterfahndung

See also

References