Not entirely correct. If they are flying over head with a FLIR filming your neighbor, looking for a grow op with a warrant, and they see your house in the periphery that looks like it has a grow op in it, yeah they can get a search warrant. However, if they were searching for a grow op with a chopper and a FLIR in the NE side of the city, and they ended up finding your house in the SW side of the city, that is not legal. The evidence would have to be thrown out, and no judge in the world would allow a search warrant over this.
A few years ago, a cop got a search warrant on a house (I don't remember the state), and wanted to use his new toy, a FLIR camera. So instead of waiting till he was at the house in question, the cop turned it on two blocks away, and filmed the heat signature of all of the houses on the way to the house in question. He ended up finding a second grow op, and used it to get a warrant. The entire case was thrown out under improper search methods.
Also, it is not correct that cops can just 'say they were chasing a suspect in the area'. They actually have to show documented evidence to prove that they were doing that. Otherwise it's what is called 'fishing for evidence' which is illegal. It's a little easier for cops to lie about where they go in a squad car, but hele's cost alot of money to operate, and they have to document where, why, and how they are going to take it out.
Likewise, my friend thought it would be fun to piss off the police a little. On the highway a cop was going like 90 mph when the speed limit was 65. So my friend followed him, the cop would change his speed, so would my friend. The cop would change lanes, so would my friend. The cop realized what was happening, took the next off ramp, then got back on behind my friend and pulled him over, gave him a speeding ticket (90 in a 65). He fought the ticket by saying that he was just following the police officer. The cop said he was 'on a call' (even though his lights weren't on) and his speeding was justified, making my friend's speed unjustified. The judge asked for the report of where the cop was going, or the dispatch records confirming the cop was going somewhere. The cop couldn't come up with any records, so the judge threw out the speeding charges, and told my friend not to be a dumb ass.
