Computer snafu is behind at least 50 'raids' on Brooklyn couple's home

[Are_grits_groceries]

Blame it on a computer.

Embarrassed cops on Thursday cited a "computer glitch" as the reason police targeted the home of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys.

Apparently, the address of Walter and Rose Martin's Brooklyn home was used to test a department-wide computer system in 2002.

What followed was years of cops appearing at the Martins' door looking for murderers, robbers and rapists - as often as three times a week.

After the Daily News exclusively reported on the couple's plague of police raids yesterday, apologetic detectives from the NYPD's Identity Theft Squad showed up at their home.

Rose Martin, 82, said they told her Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered them to solve the puzzle - stat.

By the end of the day, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said the snafu was traced to a 2002 computer test, though he couldn't explain why the couple's address was used as a test case in the first place.

He said that when the Martins complained to cops in 2007 about their scary series of official doorknocks, police tried to wipe their address from the system.

But the raids continued. The most recent, on Tuesday, left 83-year-old World War II vet Walter Martin woozy from soaring blood pressure.
<snip>
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/03/19/2010-03-19_computer_snafu_behind_repeated_raids_on_bklyn_couples_home_the_8year_glitch.html#ixzz0iiJ9CinV

I hope they get a lawyer now and give the NYPD more than a SNAFU.

[RagAss]

1. More police traffic than a Donut Shop.

[DainBramaged]

4. Mmmmmmmmmm donuts

[Xipe Totec]

2. Sure, blame the computer nt

[RC]

3. You would think that after a while the address, or at least the location would

start to look familiar. Some recognition should have set in somewhere along the line.
Keystone Kops comes to my mind.
2002 to 2010 and is still going on?

[my2sense]

5. Ridiculous that it took

the Commisisoner to "order them to solve the puzzle". You would think after the 3rd, 4th time, an officer or supervisor would have looked into this without being told to do so.

[WVRICK13]

6. Big Brother Doesn't Care

If the computer says so it must be true. I would sue the pants off of these bozos if they did this to my parents.

[eShirl]

7. I wish Walter and his wife a peaceful and comfortable remainder of their golden years.

[struggle4progress]

8. Photo of the Martins:

Police Repeatedly Busting Dangerous 80-Year-Old
http://www.nypress.com/blog-6078-police-repeatedly-busting-dangerous-80-year-old.html

Or maybe not. Maybe this is them:


Bloomberg apologizes to couple mistakenly 'raided' by NYPD over 50 TIMES
BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, March 19th 2010, 12:50 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/19/2010-03-19_bloomberg_apologizes_to_couple_mistakenly_raided_by_nypd_over_50_times.html

New York police say sorry with cheesecake to pensioners
Page last updated at 00:38 GMT, Saturday, 20 March 2010
New York's police chief has delivered a cheesecake to an elderly couple in Brooklyn, to apologise for dozens of mistaken police visits to their home .... NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne told the Associated Press .... the Martin's address had now been flagged with alerts "barring officers" from questioning the octogenarians. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8577579.stm

[pipoman]

9. The likelihood that one or both of these 80 year olds are

diabetic is fairly high....maybe they are trying to kill them so they can't sue?