In my opinion, LE wasn't as opposed to public searches as GR has stated. I didn't get that sense at all. I personally talked to Lt. Cobb before the search was even planned, and although he said he discouraged public searches, he also said he understood the public's need to do something and gave tips to tell the searchers (ie. regarding being safe, stopping immediately to call 911 if anything suspicious is found, etc.). He didn't sound either somewhat opposed to it or vehemently opposed to it at all, IMO.
It was only AFTER GR through a public snit fit about it and encouraged people to call the Sheriff's department to ask about searching, that public searches were publicly discouraged (although still noted to be legal).
I'm guessing that the sheriff's office was flooded by calls by people who didn't know what to do, but perhaps wanted to do something, but wanted to make sure it was okay. After a day or two of constant calls, if this was indeed the case, I would get frustrated too and just say "No. No searching. We're done here." Otherwise, they're just basically condoning it, which they can't do. As ORR pointed out a few threads back, this was huge waste of the deputies' time, as they had to spend time fielding each one of these calls, when that time could have been done doing something more productive and worthwhile.
IMO ~ Well played, GR. Well played.
lease: And I hope they're making some sort of progress. It's been so long since she went missing!
