Pitts v. District of Columbia (177 F. Supp. 3d 347, 2016)

MEMORANDUM OPINION

TANYA S. CHUTEAN, United States District Judge

In this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Patrice Pitts and her son Michael Pitts challenge the Metropolitan Police Department’s practice of obtaining home search warrants based on nothing more than street arrests for gun possession and an officer’s purported “training and experience” regarding the habits and tendencies of gun possessors. Plaintiffs allege that twelve named MPD officers and an unspecified number of “John Doe” MPD officers (collectively, the “MPD Officer Defendants”) violated Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights when they broke down their front door, ransacked their home, and subjected them to humiliating and invasive searches, including a rectal cavity search of Michael Pitts conducted in full view of his mother and partner. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that

i. the MPD Officer Defendant who swore out an affidavit in support of the warrant to search their home violated the Fourth Amendment by obtaining the warrant based on (a) knowingly and recklessly false statements and material omissions (Count II), and (b) information that was itself obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment (Count III);

ii. the MPD Officer Defendants violated the Fourth Amendment in relying on the search warrant because it was so facially lacking in probable cause that no reasonable officer could have relied on it in good faith (Count I);

iii. the MPD Officer Defendants violated the Fourth Amendment in executing the search warrant by

a. failing to knock and announce prior to entering their apartment (Counts V and VI),

b. strip searching Michael Pitts, which entailed exposing and probing his genitals and anal cavity in front of both his mother and his partner (Count VII),

c. conducting an extended search for drugs despite the fact that the warrant pertained only to firearms and related items (Count VII), and

d. unjustifiably handcuffing them for the entire duration of the search (Count VTI); and

iv. the MPD Officer Defendants violated the Fifth Amendment in executing the search warrant by engaging in conduct that shocks the conscience (Count VII).

Plaintiffs also bring a Monell claim for municipal liability against the District of Columbia, asserting that the Fourth Amendment violation described in paragraph (i)(a) above was the result of a policy, pattern and custom of such conduct by the MPD,’ as well as the MPD’s failure to properly train and supervise its officers (Count IV).

Defendants move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). They argue that the MPD Officer Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity because Plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged a violation of their clearly established constitutional rights. They also argue that Plaintiffs cannot make out a Monell violation because they cannot point to any predicate constitutional violation.

Upon consideration of Defendants’ Motion and the parties’ respective submissions, and for the reasons set forth below, Defendants’ Motion is hereby GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiffs, 56-year-old Patrice Pitts and her 37-year-old son Michael Pitts, allege that on the evening of March 26, 2013, the heavily armed MPD Officer Defendants broke down the front door of their Southeast Washington, D.C. apartment without knocking and announcing their presence while executing a search warrant. The warrant application was based on the affidavit of MPD Officer Defendant Mark Pugh (the “Affidavit”). The events leading up to and including the execution of the search warrant are set forth below.

a. Tyrone Pitts Is Arrested On The Sidewalk In Front Of Plaintiffs’ Apartment Building

According to Pugh’s Affidavit, on March 23, 2013 (three days before the search was executed), Pugh and two other officers were conducting a “Robbery Suppression Operation in PSAs 704, 705 and 708,” which the Affidavit describes as being “known for having large amounts of street robberies involving firearms.” (Am. Compl. Ex. 1 (“Warrant”) at 3). The Affidavit states that one officer had received information that an individual who frequented the front of Plaintiffs’ apartment building at 3921 4th Street S.E. was armed with a handgun. (Id.). The Affidavit . further states that, during the operation, the officers noticed Tyrone Pitts, who is Patrice’s uncle, and who was then 64 years old, standing on the sidewalk in front of the apartment building wearing dark clothing. (Id.).

According to the Affidavit, when Tyrone noticed the officers’ presence, he attempted to avoid eye contact and appeared unsure of where he wanted to go. (Id.). The officers then “made contact” with Tyrone and asked him “if he had anything illegal on his person. [He] replied ‘No, you can check,’ ” and raised both of his arms in the air. (Id.). Pugh then conducted a protective pat-down for weapons and felt a metal object in the front of Tyrone’s waistband, which turned out to be a nine-millimeter semi-automatic handgun loaded with eleven rounds of ammunition. (Id.). Tyrone was then arrested for possessing the handgun. (Id. at 4). Record searches subsequently determined that he was not licensed to carry a pistol in the District of Columbia and had not registered any firearms or ammunition in the District. (Id.).

Plaintiffs challenge certain of the Affidavit’s assertions regarding Tyrone’s arrest. Most notably, they allege that Tyrone did not spontaneously declare to the officers that they could search him for weapons, and that, “[i]n reality, [he] was- forcibly stopped on the street by MPD officers and immediately frisked and searched without ever providing consent.” (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 43-44).

b. The MPD Conducts Reconnaissance Of The Apartment Before Seeking The Warrant

According to the Affidavit, after his arrest, Tyrone informed MPD officers that he lived in apartment number two at 3921 4th Street S.E. (Warrant at 4). Later that day, a uniformed MPD officer visited the apartment. (Id.). The officer was met at the door by Patrice, who — apparently unaware that her uncle was already in custody — stated that she was Tyrone’s niece, and that Tyrone lived there, but was not home. (Id.).

Plaintiffs allege that, based on this interaction between the MPD officer and Patrice, the MPD Officer Defendants “knew before their invasion into the home that [Patrice] is frail, disabled and barely able to move.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 54).

c. Officer Pugh Applies For The Search Warrant

After Tyrone’s arrest and the MPD’s reconnaissance of the apartment where the Pitts family lived, Officer Pugh applied for a warrant to search (i) “the entire premise” of the apartment “for the seizure of additional guns, additional ammunition and other gun related items, photographs or paperwork that reflect the possession of firearms, or paperwork reflecting who inhabits the residence,” as well as (ii) “any occupants located within the premises.” (Warrant at 4).

As Plaintiffs note, Pugh’s Affidavit did not cite any particularized facts about Plaintiffs’ apartment that would tend to indicate that the police were likely to find guns or gun-related items there; instead, the only evidence connecting the apartment to any criminal activity was the fact that a person who lived there (Tyrone) had been arrested three days earlier for possessing a gun on the street outside the apartment. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 16, 22). Accordingly, Pugh’s warrant application was based on the foregoing recitation of the circumstances surrounding Tyrone’s arrest and the MPD’s reconnaissance of the apartment, as well as Pugh’s (i) training from the MPD “Institute of Police Science” in the illegal possession of firearms; (ii) experience “as an officer enforcing laws against the illegal possession of firearms” and “affecting arrests of individuals illegally possessing firearms”; and (iii) “work with other veteran police officers, investigators and detectives,” all of which purportedly led Pugh to “reasonably believe[ ]” the following:

• “That persons who keep or carry guns illegally commonly retain items associated with them firearms long after they bought or obtained the guns, ... and, that these are almost always stored in the gun-possessor’s home”;

• That gun possessors “keep in- storage extra ammunition for their firearms, beyond the immediate capacity of the particular firearm and, that they keep such additional ammunition in their homes”;

• That “it is not uncommon for a person who is found to be carrying a firearm in his possession to have stored at his home one or more additional firearms, along with additional ammunition, and papers related to the acquisition- of that firearm”;

• “That many persons who illegally possess guns often have pictures taken of themselves with friends in which they display their gun or guns,” and that such pictures are “commonly” kept at the gun possessor’s home, including on cell phones and personal computers;

• “That, even after an individual’s arrest for gun-related charges, .the person’s . family commonly do[es] not . dispose of other firearms or ammunition; and, even if they do get rid of other guns, they are much less likely to get rid of ammunition”; and

• That, even after an individual’s arrest for gun-related charges, “hardly ever do [the arrestee’s] associates remove or get rid of gun packaging or cleaning equipment or photos of a person with a gun, and that such items will remain at the arrested individual’s home for a considerable period of time after such arrest.”

(Warrant at 2-3).

Plaintiffs allege that “Pugh’s claim that police were likely to find the firearms-related items because of the habits of [gun possessors like Tyrone] was knowingly and recklessly false,” and that, “based on publicly available records, it was far more likely than not that the Defendants would not find each of the items sought.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 29). According to Plaintiffs, MPD search warrant inventory returns show that in the one-year period surrounding and including the execution of the search warrant here, home searches for guns and gun paraphernalia based on warrant applications that lacked particularized facts and referred only to street arrests for gun possession and MPD officers’ claimed “training and experience” failed to turn up evidence of gun ownership in the overwhelming majority of cases. (Id. ¶¶ 4b, 29-30). Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that such searches failed to find ammunition 74% of the time, failed to find guns 91% of the time and failed to find documentary or photographic evidence of gun possession at least 94% of the time. (Id.).

Plaintiffs also allege that Pugh “misled the issuing judge” in applying for the search warrant by failing to inform the judge that (i) many guns in the District “are passed and traded by individuals without documentation or records, and without the person possessing any receipts or accoutrements of legal gun ownership”; (ii) gun possessors in the District “frequently share guns with multiple other residents [of the District] and therefore often possess firearms on the street that they do not actually own”; and (iii) the MPD “trains its officers that gun possessors commonly possess [guns and gun-related items] in a variety of other places that are not their homes.” (Id. ¶¶ 31-34).

d. The Search Warrant Is Issued

On the basis of the Affidavit, a D.C. Superior Court judge issued a search warrant on March 26, 2013. (Warrant at 1). Despite the fact that Officer Pugh requested a warrant authorizing a search of both “the entire premise” of the apartment and “any occupants located within the premises,” the warrant provided for a search of the premises only. (Id. at 1, 4). The warrant stated that it was based on probable cause to believe that the apartment contained “illegal firearms, parts of firearms, firearm magazines, ammunition, holsters, gun cleaning kits, gun cases, pictures, papers or other paraphernalia relating to the ownership of a firearm,” and authorized the seizure of such property. (Id. at 1).

e. The MPD Officer Defendants Execute The Search Warrant

Plaintiffs allege that oh the evening of March 26, 2013, the heavily armed MPD Officer Defendants broke down the front door of their apartment to execute the search warrant without first knocking to announce their presence, despite the absent of any exigent circumstances that could have justified their failure to knock and announce, and despite the fact that the door was unlocked. They also allege that the door was permanently damaged by the officers’ forcible entry. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1, 46-63).

Several officers seized and handcuffed Patrice, who had been lying in bed, “even though she is frail, disabled, and barely able to move,” and even though she engaged in no threatening or illegal behavior. (Id. ¶¶55, 93). “[D]espite her repeated pleas for the- painful metal cuffs to be removed” and the fact that “the house was secure, she was calm, and there was no security risk,” the officers then brought Patrice to the living room and kept her in handcuffs as they searched the apartment. (Id. ¶58)_. Additionally, despite knowing that Tyrone was already in custody, the officers told Patrice that they would contact the housing authority and get her evicted if they found out that Tyrone was in the apartment. (Id. ¶ 59).

Meanwhile, Michael was taken from the kitchen, where he had been - cooking dinner, and brought to the living room, where his mother was handcuffed. (Id. ¶ 60). One officer handcuffed him while another pulled down his- pants and exposed and probed his genitals and anal cavity in front of his mother and his partner, Abimbola Idris. (Id. ¶¶ 1, 24, 61, 64-65, 93). Michael was then forced to the floor. (Id. ¶ 62). Despite the fact that the warrant did not authorize a search for drugs, the officers “repeatedly shouted at [Michael] that they knew that he had drugs in the home and numerous times demanded that he show them where they could find drugs.” (Id. ¶ 66). They also told Michael that “if he did not tell them where the drugs were, his partner would go to jail.” (Id. ¶ 73). The officers also made fun of Michael for cooking dinner, and one officer “put his hands into the food that [Michael] had been preparing, ruining the family’s dinner.” (Id. ¶ 75).

Idris had just arrived home from work moments before police burst through the door. (Id. ¶ 67). A male officer asked her if she had any weapons, and she stated that she did not, and that she had just come home from work. (Id. ¶ 68). The officer then patted her down, despite the fact that she was wearing a tight dress and was clearly unarmed. (Id.). She was then handcuffed. (Id. ¶ 69). When she calmly asked why she had been handcuffed, an officer told her that everyone in the house “had” to be handcuffed before then tightening the handcuffs so that they cut into her skin, causing her significant pain and leaving a scar. (Id.). When Idris complained that the handcuffs were hurting her, she was told to shut up. (Id. ¶ 70). When an officer pointed to her briefcase, Idris asked him to be careful with it because it contained a laptop belonging to her employer. (Id. ¶ 71). The officer then “picked up the briefcase and deliberately dropped [it] onto the floor from arm height.” (Id.). Idris “asked the officer what she was supposed to tell her employer if the officer had broken her laptop, and the officer told her to tell her employer that she had been in a ‘bad neighborhood, in a bad house that she shouldn’t have been in.’” (Id. ¶72).

The officers “then ransacked the home, throwing the family’s belongings all around the house.” (Id. ¶ 77). They did not find any guns or any of the gun-related items described in the search warrant, nor did they find any drugs or other contraband. (Id. ¶ 77). The officers seized only some of the family’s mail, which was never returned to them. (Id. at 17 n.5; Warrant at 1). It took the Pitts family several days to clean their apartment, and the experience left them traumatized, and feeling unsafe in their own home. (Id. ¶ 79).

f. Plaintiffs’ Allegations Regarding The MPD’s Pattern, Policy And Practice Of ■ Obtaining Warrants For Home Searches Based On Gun Arrests Outside The Home And Averments Regarding Officer “Training And Experience”

Plaintiffs allege that the MPD “has adopted a pattern, policy, and practice of instructing its officers to obtain and execute search warrants [for] the alleged residences of people on whom they find firearms during traffic and street stops ... despite the obvious lack of any evidentiary connection to the residence,” and despite case law from this Circuit holding that “home raids based solely on possession of a firearm somewhere away from the home clearly lack probable cause.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 39). Plaintiffs further allege that the MPD trains its officers to use barebones affidavits based on “training and experience,” as well as “false and misleading statements about the habits of a generic category of people that it labels ‘gun possessors,’ ... to turn any gun arrest anywhere in the District into an automatic home raid, even though officers know that they are unlikely to find the evidence that they claim to seek” in such raids. (Id. ¶¶ 37-38).

Plaintiffs claim that in the one-year period surrounding the execution of the search warrant at issue in this case, MPD officers obtained warrants for at least 56 home searches on the basis of having found a firearm on a resident of the home during a street stop and their purported “training and experience” regarding the habits and tendencies of gun possessors, but without presenting any other evidence linking the home to any criminal activity. (Id. ¶ 40). As noted above, Plaintiffs allege that, in the vast majority of instances, these searches found no evidence of gun possession. (Id. ¶¶ 4b, 29-30).

II. LEGAL STANDARD

a. Motion To Dismiss Under Rule 12(b)(6)

“A Rule 12(b)(6) motion tests the legal sufficiency of a complaint.” Browning v. Clinton, 292 F.3d 235, 242 (D.C.Cir.2002). In considering a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6), a court must construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, see id-, and “must assume the truth of all well-pleaded allegations.” Warren v. District of Columbia, 353 F.3d 36, 39 (D.C.Cir.2004). “To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (internal and citation omitted). “The plausibility standard is not akin to a ‘probability requirement,’ but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully.” Id. (citation omitted). Although a plaintiff may survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion even where “recovery is very remote and unlikely,” the facts alleged in the complaint “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) (quotation and citation omitted). Moreover, a pleading must offer more than “labels and conclusions” or a “formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955).

b. Qualified Immunity

“Qualified immunity balances two important interests — the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably.” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231, 129 S.Ct. 808, 172 L.Ed.2d 565 (2009). This protection is afforded to government officials regardless of whether their “error is a mistake of law, a mistake of fact, or a mistake based on mixed questions of law and fact.” Id. (quotation and citations omitted); see also Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949) (“Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability.”); Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 661, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (Stevens, J., dissenting) (“The concept of probable cause leaves room for mistakes, provided always that they are mistakes that could have been made by a reasonable officer.”). In short, “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law” enjoy the protection of qualified immunity. Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986).

“[WJhether an official protected by qualified immunity may be held personally liable for an allegedly unlawful official action generally turns on the ‘objective legal reasonableness’ of the action, assessed in light of the legal rules that were ‘clearly established’ at the time it was taken.” Anderson, 483 U.S. at 639, 107 S.Ct. 3034 (quoting Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818-19, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982)). “The relevant, dispos-itive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.” Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151, 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). “Ordinarily, in order for the law to be clearly established, there must be a Supreme Court or Circuit decision on point, or the clearly established weight of authority from other courts must ■ have found the law to be as the plaintiff maintains.” Doe v. District of Columbia, 796 F.3d 96, 104 (D.C.Cir.2015) (citation and brackets omitted); see also Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U.S. 731, 741, 131 S.Ct. 2074, 179 L.Ed.2d 1149 (2011) (noting that courts “do not require a case directly on point, but existing precedent must have placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate”). ■ ■

Given the nature of the qualified immunity calculus, “if the facts in the record could at least arguably give rise to probable cause,” then a defendant is “entitled to qualified immunity.” Wesby v. District of Columbia, No. 12-7127, 816 F.3d 96, 100, 2016 WL 482910, at *5 (D.C.Cir. Feb. 8, 2016) (citing Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 227, 112 S.Ct. 534, 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991); Wardlaw v. Pickett, 1 F.3d 1297, 1304 (D.C.Cir.1993)). Importantly, it is Plaintiffs’ “burden to show that the particular right in question — narrowly described to fit the factual pattern confronting the officers — was clearly established.” Dukore v. District of Columbia, 799 F.3d 1137, 1145 (D.C.Cir.2015) (citing Reichle v. Howards, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2088, 2094, 182 L.Ed.2d 985 (2012)).

III. ANALYSIS

Defendants move to dismiss on a number of grounds, including that (i) the MPD Officer Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity; (ii) Plaintiffs fail to allege a Monell violation against the District; and (iii) the MPD Officer Defendants were not negligent per se in failing to knock and announce before entering Plaintiffs’ apartment to execute the search warrant. The court will address each count of the Amended Complaint in turn, having reordered them to reflect the chronology of relevant events.

a. The Issuance Of The Warrant Based On Allegedly False Information (Count II)

Count II of the Amended Complaint alleges that Pugh’s Affidavit “contained numerous statements of ‘training’ and ‘experience’ ... that were knowingly and recklessly false and misleading” and “omitted material facts known to [him] that, if presented, would.have undermined the asserted basis for seeking the warrant.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 83). Plaintiffs allege that these false and misleading statements and omissions violated their Fourth Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court has explained that an expectation of truthfulness attends all warrant applications:

When the Fourth Amendment demands a factual showing sufficient to comprise “probable cause,” the obvious assumption is that there will be a truthful showing. This does not mean “truthful” in the sense that every fact recited in the warrant affidavit is necessarily correct, for probable cause may be founded upon hearsay and upon information received from informants, as well as upon information within the affiant’s own knowledge that sometimes must be garnered hastily. But surely it is to be “truthful” in the sense that the information put forth is believed or appropriately accepted by the affiant as true. ■

Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 164-65, 98 S.Ct. 2674, 57 L.Ed.2d 667 (1978) (quotation and citations omitted) (emphasis in original). Given this expectation, the Fourth Amendment is violated where “a false statement knowingly and intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, [is] included by the affiant in the warrant affidavit ... if the allegedly false statement is necessary to the finding of probable cause.” Id. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674.

Here, Pugh’s Affidavit stated that his “training and experience” led him to reasonably believe that evidence of Tyrone’s gun possession would be found inside the apartment. (Warrant at 2-4). Plaintiffs allege, however, that the overwhelming majority of MPD home searches based on nothing more than street arrests for gun possession and statements regarding an affiant officer’s “training and' experience” do not actually uncover any evidence of gun possession. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 29-31). According to Plaintiffs, MPD records réveal that in the one-year period surrounding and including the execution of the search warrant at issue in this case, “training and experience”-based home searches following street arrests for gun possession failed to find ammunition 74% of the time, failed to find guns 91% of the time and failed to find documentary or photographic evidence of gun possession at least 94% of the time. (Id. ¶ 30).

Based on these statistics, Plaintiffs assert that Pugh was untruthful in his Affidavit because his training and experience could not have led him to reasonably believe that evidence of gun possession would be found in the apartment, and instead led him to believe that such evidence would not be found there. (Id. ¶¶ 29-31). Notably, the Amended Complaint does not allege that Pugh was aware of the aforementioned MPD statistics, or that his personal experience mirrored those statistics. It does state, however, that Pugh’s “claim that police were likely to find the firearms-related items because of the habits of such criminals was knowingly and recklessly false.” (Am. Compl. ¶ 29). Additionally, after discussing the failuré rate of the MPD’s “training and experience”-based searches, the Amended Complaint refers to other, information allegedly omitted from the Affidavit as “other material facts in [Pugh’s] possession,” which could be read to mean that Pugh also knew about the aforementioned failure rate. {Id. ¶ 32). Given that the court must read Plaintiffs’ allegations in the light most favorable to them, it will construe the Amended Complaint as alleging that Pugh knew, based on his actual “training and experience,” that “it was far more likely than not that the Defendants would not find” evidence of gun ownership in the apartment. {Id. ¶ 31) (emphasis in original).

Defendants argue that “Plaintiffs’ post hoc review of statistical data attempts to quantify probable cause, a practice which the Supreme Court has expressly condemned” (Mot. at 11) (citation omitted), and that “[statistics based on search success rates have relatively limited import to probable cause because errors may abound in the records.” (Reply at 4). But Defendants misunderstand, the import of Plaintiffs’ argument. As noted above, the court construes Plaintiffs as alleging that Pugh’s actual “training and experience” is contrary to the “training and experience” to which he aveiYed in the Affidavit. If Plaintiffs are correct — and the court must assume at this stage of the proceedings that they are — then the Affidavit’s statements regarding Pugh’s “training and experience” were false, or at least misleading. In such a circumstance, the court must determine whether “the allegedly false statement[s were] necessary to the finding of probable cause.” Franks, 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674. In order to do so, the court must excise the allegedly false and misleading statements from the Affidavit and determine de novo whether the “hypothetical, redacted affidavit still established probable cause.” United States v. Cardoza, 713 F.3d 656, 659 (D.C.Cir.2013)

In this case, when Pugh’s averments regarding his “training and experience” are removed from the Affidavit, all that remains are his averments regarding (i) the circumstances of the initial street stop, search and arrest of Tyrone; (ii) the MPD’s reconnaissance of the apartment; and (iii) the MPD’s search of its records to determine that Tyrone was not licensed to carry a firearm and had not registered any guns or ammunition. These allegations, taken alone, do not make out probable cause to search the apartment because they fail to meet the so-called “nexus requirement,” which requires that there be “reasonable cause to believe that the specific ‘things’ to be searched for and seized are located on the property to which entry is sought.” Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, 436 U.S. 547, 556, 98 S.Ct. 1970, 56 L.Ed.2d 525 (1978); see also United States v. Lalor, 996 F.2d 1578, 1583 (4th Cir.1993) (“residential searches have been upheld only where some information links the criminal activity to the defendant’s residence”).

The court’s finding is further supported by Plaintiffs’ allegations that Pugh failed to inform the issuing judge of certain facts “in his possession” that would tend to indicate that evidence of gun possession would not be found in a gun possessor’s home. (Am. Compl. ¶ 32). For example, Plaintiffs allege that Pugh failed to inform the issuing judge that: (i) many guns in the District “are passed and traded by individuals without documentation or records, and without the person possessing any receipts or accoutrements of legal gun ownership”; (ii) gun possessors in the District “frequently share guns with multiple other residents [of the District] and therefore often possess firearms on the street that they do not actually own”; and (iii) the MPD '“trains its officers that gun possessors commonly possess [guns and gun paraphernalia] in a variety of other places that are not their homes.” (Id. ¶¶.31-34) (emphasis in original). The court finds that adding these allegedly omitted facts .to .a version of the Affidavit that has been stripped of the allegedly false and misleading statements regarding Pugh’s “training and experience” would only further vitiate probable cause.

In light of the foregoing, the court concludes that Plaintiffs have sufficiently stated a claim that Officer Pugh secured the warrant to search their home with material false statements or omissions, thereby violating the Fourth Amendment. The court will therefore deny Defendants’ Motion as to Count II, save for those portions of the count concerning the street search of Tyrone, which are addressed separately below.

b. The Monell Claim For Municipal Liability (Count IV)

Count IV seeks to hold the District liable for its alleged “pattern, policy, and practice of training its officers to include in search warrant applications statements of ‘training1 and ‘experience’ that are unsubstantiated, vague, self-defeating, contradictory, woefully insufficient to substitute for actual evidence, and materially false and recklessly misleading,” including “statements of ‘training’ and ‘experience’ about the habits of ‘gun possessors’ that officers stop on the street as a purported substitute for any actual evidence or police investigation into any evidentiary link to a particular residence.” (Am. Compl. ¶87). Plaintiffs further allege that “the MPD continues to instruct its officers to predicate search warrant raids on such ‘training’ and ‘experience’-based statements ... [djespite having knowledge of the fatal factual and legal flaws in these statements” (id.), and that it has done so at least 56 times “[i]n the one-year period surrounding the execution of the warrant in this case” (id. ¶40). Put differently, Plaintiffs allege that the conduct challenged in Count II is part of a pattern, policy or practice that is prevalent throughout the MPD.

“[I]n considering whether a plaintiff has stated a claim for municipal liability, the district court must conduct a two-step inquiry. First, the court must determine whether the complaint states a claim for a predicate constitutional violation. Second ... the court must determine whether the complaint states a claim that a custom or policy of the municipality caused the violation.” Baker v. District of Columbia, 326 F.3d 1302, 1306 (D.C.Cir.2003) (citing Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 120, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992)). Defendants’ only argument against municipal liability is that Plaintiffs cannot establish the requisite predicate constitutional violation. The court has already held, however, that Plaintiffs’ allegations are sufficient to make out a claim against Pugh regarding the manner in which he secured the search warrant. Because Count IV frames the conduct at issue in Count II as part of a pattern, policy or practice of the MPD, Count II’s survival ensures that Count IV will survive, as well. The court will therefore deny Defendants’ Motion as to Count IV.

c. The Issuance Of The Warrant Based On Information Derived From The Allegedly Illegal Street Search Of Tyrone Pitts (Counts II and III)

In Count III, Plaintiffs allege that the Affidavit “relied on material information derived from the nonconsensual and unconstitutional search of Tyrone,” and that this information “was improperly included in the warrant application in violation of the Fourth Amendment.” (Am, Compl. ¶ 85). Specifically, while the Affidavit describes this initial street search as a consensual search (Warrant at 3), Plaintiffs allege that Tyrone never consented, and that the street search therefore violated the Fourth Amendment, meaning that the evidence, obtained as a result of the search was obtained illegally. (Am, Compl. ¶¶ 44-45, 85). Plaintiffs contend that the Affidavit’s reference to this illegally obtained evidence constituted a Fourth Amendment violation because illegally obtained evidence cannot form the basis of a warrant.

Defendants argue that Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the street search of Tyrone. They note that evidence obtained in derogation of the Fourth Amendment is regularly admitted against a search subject’s co-conspirators . and co-defendants who have no personal right of privacy in the places searched or the evidence seized, Plaintiffs contend that they are not asserting Tyrone’s rights, but are instead challenging the search of their home on the basis of a warrant that would not have issued if not for the illegal street search of Tyrone:

When officers deliberately mislead an issuing judge to obtain a warrant that they would not have been able to obtain under binding precedent, and a plaintiff is injured by that conduct through the search of the plaintiffs own home, a plaintiff has standing to challenge the validity of the warrant.

(Sur-Reply at 6-7).

The Supreme Court has made clear time and again, however, that Fourth Amendment rights “are personal rights which may not be vicariously asserted.” Plumhoff v. Rickard, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 2012, 2022, 188 L.Ed.2d 1056 (2014) (quotation, citation and alteration omitted). Because “the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places,” Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), an individual has standing to bring a Fourth Amendment challenge only where his or her own constitutional rights have been violated. See, e.g., United States v. Salvucci, 448 U.S. 83, 86-87, 100 S.Ct. 2547, 65 L.Ed.2d 619 (1980) (holding that “it is entirely proper to require of one who seeks to challenge the legality of a search” that he establish “that he himself was the victim of an invasion of privacy,” and noting that “attempts to vicariously assert violations of the Fourth Amendment rights of others have been repeatedly rejected by” the Supreme Court) (quotations and citations omitted). Thus, when an individual challenges the validity of a search or the introduction of evidence seized during a search, that individual must have a “legitimate expectation of privacy” in the place searched or the items seized. Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978),

.[14] While Plaintiffs assert a "violation of their Fourth Amendment rights with regard to the issuance of the search warrant based on illegally obtained information, that assertion is entirely dependent on a finding that the street search of Tyrone was," in fact, unconstitutional, such that the fruits of that search can be considered “illegally obtained.” To be sure, Plaintiffs explicitly allege that the street search was unlawful and unconstitutional, but these allegations amount to legal conclusions, and “the tenet that á court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937; see also Browning, 292 F.3d at 242 (noting that, while a court must accept a plaintiffs factual allegations as true under Rule 12(b)(6), it need not accept “legal conclusions cast in the form of factual allegations”) (quotation and citation omitted). And while the court must accept as true Plaintiffs’ factual allegation that Tyrone did not consent to be searched, determining whether the alleged absence of consent rendered the search illegal would require the court to make a determination as to whether ,. Tyrone’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the search. Plaintiffs simply do not have standing to ask the court to make such a determination, as they had no “legitimate expectation of privacy” with regard to Tyrone’s person or the gun found on his person at the time he was searched. Rakas, 439 U.S. at 143, 99 S.Ct. 421. If the court cannot determine that the search of Tyrone was unlawful, then it cannot find that Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the Affidavit’s reference to the fruits of that search. Accordingly, because Plaintiffs lack standing to assert that the Affidavit relied on evidence obtained through the violation of Tyrone’s Fourth Amendment rights, the court will grant Defendants’ Motion as to Count III.

The court now turns to the portion of Count II that references Officer Pugh’s allegedly false factual statements concerning the search that led to the discovery of the gun in Tyrone’s waistband and his subsequent arrest. (Am. Compl. ¶ 83). As noted above, the court is not required to accept as true Plaintiffs’ allegations regarding the legality of that search, and Plaintiffs lack standing to actually challenge its legality. The court must, however, accept as true Plaintiffs’ purely factual allegation that Tyrone did not consent to the search (id. ¶ 44), which requires it to read Pugh’s reference to Tyrone’s consent, out of the Affidavit and determine whether the “hypothetical, redacted affidavit still established probable cause.” Cardoza, 713 F.3d at 659. But given Plaintiffs’ lack of standing to challenge the legality of the search and their admission that a gun was, in fact, found in Tyrone’s waistband, merely removing reference to Tyrone’s consent from the Affidavit without also removing reference to the gun simply does not alter the probable cause calculus. The court therefore concludes that Pugh’s allegedly false factual statement regarding Tyrone’s consent did not violate Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights because “the allegedly false statement [was not] necessary to the finding of probable cause.” Franks, 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674. Accordingly, the court will also, grant Defendants’. Motion as to the portion of Count II concerning the street search of Tyrone.

d. The MPD Officer Defendants’ Reliance On The Warrant (Count I)

Plaintiffs allege in- Count I of their Amended Complaint that Pugh’s Affidavit “utterly failed to provide any particularized facts linking the home to any criminal activity, let alone’ to establish probable cause that the list of specific [gun-related] items sought” by the warrant would be found there, and that the warrant was therefore “so plainly lacking in probable cause that no reasonable officer could have relied on it in good faith.” (Am. CompL ¶ 81). Consequently, Plaintiffs contend that the MPD Officer Defendants violated their constitutional rights by relying on the facially insufficient warrant in executing the search of their home. (Id.).

As discussed above, the court finds that Plaintiffs sufficiently allege that Pugh knew that his Affidavit contained false statements and material omissions. Accordingly, the court finds that Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged that Officer Pugh could not have reasonably relied on the warrant. See Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551, 564, 124 S.Ct. 1284, 157 L.Ed.2d 1068 (2004) (“[BJecause petitioner himself prepared the invalid warrant, he may not argue that he reasonably relied on the Magistrate’s assurance that the warrant contained an adequate description of the things to be seized and was therefore valid.”). The court will therefore deny the Motion as to Count I insofar as it concerns Pugh.

The question then becomes whether the other MPD Officer Defendants were entitled to rely on the warrant. The court notes at the outset that it is “incumbent on the officer executing a search warrant to ensure the search is lawfully authorized.” Groh, 540 U.S. at 563, 124 S.Ct. 1284. At the same time, courts “have recognized that it is inevitable that law enforcement officials will in some cases reasonably but mistakenly conclude that probable cause is present, and ... that in such cases those officials — like other officials who act in ways they reasonably believe to be lawful — should not be held personally liable.” Anderson, 483 U.S. at 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034. For this reason, “the protection of qualified immunity is available if ‘a reasonable officer could have believed that [his or her actions were] lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the officers possessed.’ ” Youngbey v. March, 676 F.3d 1114, 1117 (D.C.Cir.2012) (quoting Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 615, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999)).

In order for the police to have probable cause to conduct a residential search, a search warrant must fulfill the so-called “nexus requirement,” which requires that there be “reasonable cause to believe that the specific ‘things’ to be searched for and seized are located on the property to which entry is sought.” Zurcher, 436 U.S. at 556, 98 S.Ct. 1970; see also United States v. Savoy, 889 F.Supp.2d 78, 88 (D.D.C.2012) (“[P]robable cause requires not only a fair probability of criminal activity but also a nexus between that activity and the place to be searched. In other words, it requires ‘a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.’ ”) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 237, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)) (emphasis in original). Accordingly, “probable cause that a particular person possesses contraband is usually not, without more, enough to obtain a warrant to search the person’s residence for that contraband.” United States v. Hopkins, 128 F.Supp.2d 1, 5 (D.D.C.2000). Instead, there must be “some information [which] links the criminal activity to the defendant’s residence.” Lalor, 996 F.2d at 1583.

In United States v. Thomas, 989 F.2d 1252 (D.C.Cir.1993), the appellant sold drugs to two undercover police officers. The police then obtained a warrant to search his home. Id. at 1253-54. The appellant argued that the fruits of the search should have been suppressed because the affidavit in support of the warrant “was inadequate” insofar as “it offered no facts indicating that criminal activity occurred at the house.” Id. at 1253. Indeed, the affidavit’s only nexus to the appellant’s residence was the affiant officer’s generalized averment that, based on his “experience investigating narcotics trafficking, ... drug dealers frequently keep business records, narcotics, proceeds from sales, and firearms in their houses.” Id. at 1254.

The Court rejected the appellant’s argument, however, finding that “substantial evidence supported a finding of probable cause to issue the warrant.” Id. at 1255. In so doing, it explicitly held that “observations of illegal activity occurring away from [a] suspect’s residence can support a finding of probable cause to issue a search warrant for the residence if there is a reasonable basis to infer from the nature of the illegal activity observed that relevant evidence will be found in the residence.” Id. (punctuation marks omitted). Specifically, the Court found that the affi-ant officer’s generalized averments as to his “experience investigating narcotics trafficking” established the requisite “reasonable basis to infer ... that relevant evidence will be found in the [appellant’s] residence.” Id. at 1254-55. The D.C. Circuit has repeatedly reaffirmed the reasoning in Thomas in other cases involving searches of suspected drug traffickers’ homes.

Thomas concerned essentially the same question that is now before this court, except in the context of drug distribution rather than gun possession. While Defendants rely heavily on Thomas, Plaintiffs address it only once in their three briefs, arguing in a -footnote that “this drug-culture precedent is simply not applicable to cases in which a single gun is found on a person in a single incident,” and claiming that it relied on the “deeply flawed factual assumption” that drug dealers keep evidence of their drug distribution in their homes. (Opp’n at 14 n.4). But while the context may have been different and the Court’s “factual assumption” may have been “flawed,” Thomas’s clear holding— that generalized averments as to “training and experience” can fulfill the nexus requirement. so long as “there is a reasonable basis to infer from the nature of the illegal activity observed [away from a residence] that relevant evidence will be found in the residence” — nevertheless presents a profound problem for Plaintiffs qualified immunity argument, in which they bear the burden. 989 F.2d at 1255

In an attempt to carry their burden, Plaintiffs point repeatedly to United States v. Hopkins, 128 F.Supp.2d 1 (D.D.C.2000), decided seven years after Thomas. In Hopkins, the defendant was arrested on the street for carrying a handgun without a license. Several days later, a police investigator obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s residence, averring that the defendant “may have at his home address ... additional guns, ammunition, gun care and cleaning materials, receipts for guns and related gun materials, reloading equipment, holsters and accessories.” 128 F.Supp.2d at 3. The investigator “seemfed] to have based this conclusion on three grounds: his formal training, his on-the-job experience, and [the defendant’s] recent gun-related arrest.” Id. However, the training and experience detailed in the warrant application concerned “the many inferences that ..normally flow from one’s status as a narcotics trafficker,” despite the fact that there was “no evidence” that the defendant was “in any way involved in drugs.” Id. at 7 (emphasis added). Unlike'this case, the affidavit in Hopkins contained no recitation of the inferences that would normally flow from one’s status as a gun possessor. The investigator subsequently explained that “the plethora of drug references in his affidavit” were “likely included by mistake.” Id.

The court took issue with the affidavit’s references to the investigator’s narcotics-related training and experience in support of a search warrant for evidence of gun possession. It reviewed the affidavit anew after excising the “superfluous information” regarding narcotics and found that probable cause did not exist because, with the drag references removed, the affidavit merely stated that (i) the defendant had two gun arrests (one in close proximity to his home less than 72 hours earlier), and (ii) the investigator had “participated in over 150 arrests and warrants for narcotics violations, but some unknown number of arrests for firearms and weapons violations.” Id. The court found that the affidavit failed to satisfy the nexus requirement because, with the references to the investigator’s “training and experience” excised, the inference to be drawn “amounted to the following: suspects who are arrested for gun violations twice in fifteen months have illegal guns and related accessories in their home.” Id. In the court’s view, this was “not enough to support a finding of probable cause.” Id.

The court in Hopkins also found that while “the world of drugs has its own unique culture, ... [o]utside the distinctive drag culture ... behavior is much less uniform and inferences are correspondingly tougher to draw.” Id. at 5-6. It then specifically addressed how drug trafficking culture differs from gun possession culture:

Unlike the drag culture, the incidence of gun possession is not so highly identified with a particular pattern of behavior. While drag dealers usually require a place to store their inventory, gun owners can (and often do) carry their entire artillery — often a single pistol — with them at any one time. People who have a gun rarely need to make repeated purchases of a gun, and rarely ran a gun distribution network out of their home. Of course, this could be true in any one case, but the affidavit in the instant case is devoid of any reconnaissance information that would lead one to think such circumstances were afoot. The affidavit might have, for example, explained ... that owners who possess guns like Hopkins’ gun usually possess a collection of attachments and paraphernalia, and that these attachments are usually kept at that owners’ residence. But the affidavit did none of this; and it is unreasonable for a magistrate to infer these or other similar circumstances from two gun arrests over a fifteen month period.

Id. at 7-8 (emphasis added).

The court then turned to the question of whether the Leon “good faith” exception applied, and concluded that it did, even though the challenged affidavit made no reference to any training or experience concerning the tendency of gun possessors to keep evidence of their gun possession in then’ homes:

Looking at all the circumstances in the instant case, the Court finds that the warrant, even if unsupported by probable cause, was executed in good faith by the law enforcement officers .... In executing the warrant, the officers made an assumption. They assumed that one who has a past of carrying guns, and has just recently carried a gun near his home is likely to have gun paraphernalia in his home. As the Court explained above, this is not enough to establish probable cause. But it is enough to show that the officers were acting in good faith. Their conclusion was not illogical, just weakly supported. Law enforcement officers in areas such as the District of Columbia are no doubt familiar with many individuals who, after several arrests, continue to violate the law. It is not absurd to think that the defendant in this case might be one of those people. Thus, although the officers may have acted prematurely or even somewhat overzealously, the court cannot say that they acted in an entirely unreasonable manner.

Id. at 9-10 (emphasis added).

Based on Thomas, its progeny in this Circuit, and the district court’s reasoning in Hopkins, the court finds it to be a close quéstion whether Pugh’s averments- as to his “training and experience” sufficed to establish probable cause for the other MPD Officer Defendants to believe that evidence of Tyrone’s gun possession was likely to be found in Plaintiffs’ home. In light of the four considerations set forth below, however, the court finds that it is at least arguable that the non-affiant MPD Officer Defendants could have reasonably believed that the warrant at issue in this case was supported by probable cause. Given the posture of this case, the court need go no further than that to conclude that the non-affiant MPD Officer Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity. See Wesby, 816 F.3d at 100, 2016 WL 482910, at *5 (“if the facts in the record could at least arguably give rise to probable cause, the defendants would be entitled to qualified immunity”) (citing Hunter, 502 U.S. at 227, 112 S.Ct. 534; Wardlaw, 1 F.3d at 1304).

First, and most importantly, the D.C. Circuit has made clear that “observations of illegal activity occurring away from [a] suspect’s residence can support a finding of probable cause to issue a search warrant for the residence.” Thomas, 989 F.2d at 1255 (punctuation marks omitted). Officer Pugh’s averments as to his “training and experience” essentially mirror the averments that passed constitutional muster in Thomas and its progeny, save for the fact that the predicate charge here was gun possession' instead of drug distribution. But if generalized averments as to an officer’s “training and experience” regarding the habits and tendencies of drug dealers can provide a reasonable basis to infer that evidence of drug distribution will be found in an alleged drug dealer’s residence, then it stands to reason that substantially similar averments as to an officer’s “training and experience” regarding the habits and tendencies of gun possessors should provide a reasonable basis to infer that evidence of gun possession will be found in an alleged gun owner’s residence.

And even if the., different predicate crimes warranted different probable cause determinations because of the “unique culture” of drug trafficking, it is difficult to see how a police officer tasked with carrying out the search in this case could be expected to draw a distinction between constitutionally valid “training and experience” searches for drug-related evidence and the “training and expex-ience” search for gun-related evidence at issue here. See, e.g., Brinegar, 338 U.S. at 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302 (“In dealing with probable cause ... as the very name implies, we deal with probabilities. These are not technical; they are the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and pi-udent men, not legal technicians, act.”). In the court’s view, an officer who fails to make such a distinction is not necessarily “plainly incompetent” or “knowingly vio-lat[ing] the law.” Malley, 475 U.S. at 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092. Thus, at a minimum, while Thomas is factually distinct from this case, the court is guided by Thomas in finding that the non-affiant MPD Officer Defendants’ reliance on the warrant at issue here was not so unreasonable as to let fall the shield of qualified immunity.

Second, while there is, ample D.C. Circuit precedent finding that “training, and experience”-based warrants can establish probable cause to search the homes of suspected drug traffickers, Hopkins is the only in-Circuit case of which the court is awai-e that applies those principles to the gun possession context. And while the court in Hopkins found that there was no probable cause, the applicability of that holding to this case is cast into doubt by the fact that the Hopkins affiant’s ayer-ments regarding his “training and experience” were read out of the warrant application because of what was essentially a scrivener’s error. The fact that the court rejected a warrant application from which all references to “training and experience” had been excised would therefore appear to have little bearing on the question of whether the Affidavit at issue in this case established probable cause, or at least came close enough that the non-affiant MPD Officer Defendants would still be protected by qualified immunity.

Third, the court in Hopkins strongly indicated that the result would have been different had the affidavit stated that gun possessors “usually possess a collection of attachments and paraphernalia, and that these attachments are usually kept at that owners’ residence.” 128 F.Supp.2d at 8. Plaintiffs do not address this important caveat, and they ignore the fact that the Affidavit at issue here' — probably not by coincidence — contains exactly the kind of avei-ments that were explicitly flagged as missing in Hopkins. (Warrant at 2-3). This important distinction between Hopkins and the instant case significantly undermines Plaintiffs’ claim that “[i]f the warrant application in Hopkins fell far short of providing probable cause, the warrant application in this case was worse.” (Opp’n at 11) (quotation omitted).

Fourth, despite the lack of any aver-ments regarding gun-related “training and experience,” the court in Hopkins nevertheless found that the assumption that “one who has a past of carrying guns, and has just recently carried a gun near his home is likely to have gun paraphernalia in his home ... was ■ not illogical.” 128 F.Supp.2d at 10. Accordingly, it concluded that the officers executing the wari-ant had not “acted in an entirely um-easonable manner” and were, in fact, “acting in good faith,” such that the good faith exception would apply. Id. Given that finding, it is difficult to see how Plaintiffs can rely on Hopkins to argue that the non-affiant MPD -Officer Defendants were “plainly incompetent” or “knowingly violated] the law” here, such that they would not be entitled to qualified immunity. See Malley, 475 U.S. at 341, 106 S.Ct. 1092.

While these four considerations suffice to establish that the non-affiant MPD Officer Defendants at least arguably had probable cause and are therefore entitled to qualified immunity, the court pauses to note its concern that the D.C. Circuit’s holdings in Thomas and its progeny may run the risk of swallowing the nexus requirement whole. To wit, these cases appear, in practice if not in theory, to permit generalized, boilerplate averments regarding an officer’s “training and experience” in dealing with broad classes of suspects grouped together on the basis of their alleged criminal conduct to stand in for particularized facts about a specific suspect, his or her specific conduct, and his or her specific residence when a search warrant is sought for that residence. In the court’s view, the judicial sanctioning of such thinly supported home searches comes dangerously close to obviating the requirement that a search warrant affidavit “must suggest that there is reasonable cause to believe that the specific things to be searched for and seized are located on the property to which entry is sought and not merely that the owner of property is suspected of [a] crime,” United States v. McPhearson, 469 F.3d 518, 524 (6th Cir.2006) (emphasis added), and threatens to turn every “street arrest into an automatic raid and search of a home,” as Plaintiffs contend. (Am. Compl. ¶ 36).

Indeed, Plaintiffs’ allegations, if true, indicate that the use of “training and experience”-based warrants by the MPD has run amok. For example, Plaintiffs allege that, in the one-year period surrounding the execution of the search warrant at issue in this case, MPD officers obtained warrants to search at least ,56 homes on the basis of having found firearms on a resident of the home during a street stop and their “training and experience,” but without presenting any other evidence linking the home to any criminal activity, and that the vast majority of these searches turned up no evidence of gun possession. (Id. ¶¶ 4b, 29-30, 40). Plaintiffs also allege th