I'd be so pissed if they broke into my house with loaded weapons simply because the electric company gave them a "tip". Those rat bastards got their money for the bill but then ratted him out. It isn't their job to report electricity use to the police, their not cops, that guy should be suing them and the cops. Cops are to lazy to do any kind of investigation and just kick in doors from miscellaneous tips. What did they find computers and some weed, tax dollars well spent I'd say.
You need to remember the police did not simply break into the person's house. They came with a warrant. There is a huge difference between the two. A search warrant is given by a neutral judge who can see that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.
I know all to well how a raid works, no need to explain. I may have jumped the gun a little bit(pun intended). My issue is police many times have raided a persons home that has done no crime based on a bad tip. People have gotten killed because of the poorly planned raids. For me that is a problem I don't know why people can accept that kind of action, What would everyone say if they guy got shot dead? You need to put yourself in the position of the cops and the miner. The cops could have easily spent time watching the house for obvious activity of marijuana growing but they didn't.
In order for the police to be able to present information from a "tip" the person giving the tip needs to be known to the police (they need to know their identity) and the person needs to be credible.
I am not 100% sure what exactly would be visible from the street when someone is growing drugs from inside a house, but I would think it would be very little if anything at all. I would think that the drug growers could easily do everything they needed to do behind closed doors, and just because they are growing drugs at the house does not mean they would be selling drugs out of the house.
The judge also disagreed that the police should have watched for more evidence as he signed the search warrant.