Yesterday, 12:43 AM
Nope—and here’s why.
When law enforcement receives an anonymous tip from an unknown individual, they are legally obligated to corroborate it through an independent investigation. They must do this before making any arrest, because an unverified tip alone does not establish probable cause. This was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Illinois v. Gates (1983), which requires a “totality of the circumstances” approach to validate anonymous information.
In my case, the FBI received an anonymous threat that included a stolen image of me holding a handgun—an image taken from a now-defunct blog and used without my consent. That image was sent alongside the threat against the school, but no investigation was conducted to verify its origin, context, or authenticity. Instead, the FBI handed the tip to the Taylorville Police Department, who arrested me that same evening. No independent investigation. No corroboration. No probable cause.
Bottom line: The FBI and police failed to follow basic constitutional procedure. They acted on an anonymous threat without conducting any independent investigation, arrested me without probable cause, and used a stolen image as justification. Now the state is defending that failure instead of acknowledging the misconduct.
When law enforcement receives an anonymous tip from an unknown individual, they are legally obligated to corroborate it through an independent investigation. They must do this before making any arrest, because an unverified tip alone does not establish probable cause. This was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Illinois v. Gates (1983), which requires a “totality of the circumstances” approach to validate anonymous information.
In my case, the FBI received an anonymous threat that included a stolen image of me holding a handgun—an image taken from a now-defunct blog and used without my consent. That image was sent alongside the threat against the school, but no investigation was conducted to verify its origin, context, or authenticity. Instead, the FBI handed the tip to the Taylorville Police Department, who arrested me that same evening. No independent investigation. No corroboration. No probable cause.
Bottom line: The FBI and police failed to follow basic constitutional procedure. They acted on an anonymous threat without conducting any independent investigation, arrested me without probable cause, and used a stolen image as justification. Now the state is defending that failure instead of acknowledging the misconduct.