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Aside from this -- which is rather scary -- I was under the impression that cops _don't_ need a search warrant if there is some clear evidence that a possible crime is being committed. It makes sense, I guess, that if a cop is standing in front of a house and a shot rings out from inside, you don't want him to wait 2 hours for a search warrant. But like everything else, this can be abused. Maybe somebody waves at the cop from a window, and he says later he went in because he felt that the guy was holding a handgun. Even though he wasn't.
Cops are there to catch the "bad guys," and they don't like little things like civil liberties which make their jobs harder and their lives more complex. Unfortunately, making a cop's life less complex could possible mean honing down your rights until there's nothing left but "Do what the man with the gun says."
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