With all due respect to the distinguished author of yesterday's Rec List diary, Waving goodbye to the 4th Amendment, we seem to be falling victim to passive fatalism and totally ignoring our own immediate role as citizens in how laws are interpreted and enforced.
Regardless of the clear mandates of the Constitution, the most fundamental basis of American jurisprudence is and has always been common law - i.e., that which is functionally true on a day to day basis in law enforcement and court proceedings - and common law tends to be based on the real state of a community rather than any set of ideals. There is, therefore, a very simple and immediate way you personally can enforce the 4th Amendment.
First, the vast majority of law enforcement actions involve local police, not state or federal agencies, so your political power in those cases is enormous even if you live in a large city. The officials who oversee your local police department are not only subject to electoral pressure, but in most cases (in low or mid-population cities) are people whom you can personally meet with to discuss your expectations, your outrage about violations done to yourself or others, and ask them directly how they specifically plan to safeguard the 4th Amendment.
If you find them hostile or unreceptive, remind them - assertively, not bitterly or snidely - that they swore to uphold the law, and that you and the citizens of the community expect them to do their duty. As there is no legitimate position against enforcement of the Bill of Rights, make no concessions or even references to such a position: Do not qualify your statements. Do not say "I know there is a diversity of opinion..." blah blah blah. There is no legitimate argument against what you represent, so stop acting like there is - there is simply the clear purpose of the Bill of Rights, and there is you standing before someone sworn to uphold it asking them what their intentions are.
Talk to the police commissioner, the sheriff, the mayor, the chief of police, the city council, or however your local law enforcement system happens to be set up, and ask them how they intend to enforce the 4th Amendment. You may want to go in prepared with statistics and recent local cases that you find troubling (if any), just in case they try to bullshit you and tell you what you want to hear rather than giving honest answers - which is a high likelihood, given the nature of politics. Also talk to local prosecutors and judges (especially elected ones), and ask them the same questions in the context of their duties.
Give them air to be honest, but make clear that it is not a debate - you are there to assess the quality of their performance in carrying out their responsibilities to the community, not to engage in a philosophical discussion about freedom vs. security. Do not threaten them with being voted out, or with political embarrassment, or anything else - threats are a sign of weakness. Also avoid lecturing them or being condescending, because they will then sense that you are on a power trip rather than just being an engaged community member, and no one responds well to that kind of treatment.
Consider requesting official statements to the effect that (a)police officers are required to Mirandize arrested suspects, (b)warrants are required to conduct searches unless there is clear probable cause or an immediate safety issue, and (c)officials will not cooperate with any state or federal search that does not meet these standards. However, understand if this is politically impossible in your community, even if the officials are supportive. You may further want to ask how they intend to penalize violations of these standards.
If you don't like their answers, let them know as much, but leave it at that: No threats, no pompous rhetoric. But do let them know you would like to revisit the matter with them some time later, and ask them to think more on the subject. Do not become a gadfly - someone who buzzes around town hall meetings on some hobby horse and is universally ignored - but raise the issue at times, and strive to be someone of character whose approval or disapproval might mean something personally to people in your community. Meanwhile, you have a vast panoply of tools at your disposal to further engage the local government.
Engage police officers in your community. No, I don't mean harangue them while they're on duty, or accost them on the street and start babbling about legal principles - I mean come together with like-minded citizens, hold events, and invite local police officers to attend and discuss the matter.
Just to entice attendance, you might make your events charities that contribute to the local police union - and in that way you can both support unions and the 4th Amendment. It's important that officers understand you are not against them or suspicious of them, but that you see their job as protecting the rights of everyone, including people who may be scumbag criminals. Really lay it on thick how heroic they are, protecting the rights of the community. Praise imposes a burden on people to be worthy of it, and any decent person will feel pressured to live up to it.
In fact, if you want to go full Jedi Mind Trick, you might have an event celebrating the local police for how they uphold the law, illustrating their commitment to the rights of suspects and victims alike, and if you are careful to avoid any hint of mockery or sarcasm, it might just shame some people into being more assiduous in their respect for procedure. Of course, this won't change the attitudes of anyone who is thoroughly corrupt or authoritarian, but such people are as much a minority as those who are thoroughly principled. By showing what the community expects, you will change attitudes.
And just to prove that it is not some abstract intellectual exercise, be fully prepared to file official complaints if you are subject to or witness violations. You may, if you are willing, even drop charges you were pressing if you discover that the suspect's rights were violated, although this understandably depends on the severity of the crime. In engaging your fellow community members, make clear that it is not just a matter of law - of some pigheaded concern for "rules" - but of respect, because respect is a concept that reaches into all but the absolute ugliest corners of the political spectrum.
Respect transcends class, race, gender, and most politics - it is something almost everyone understands intuitively. At its most fundamental, the Bill of Rights is all about requiring public officers to respect the people, and everyone understands that concept on a "gut" level even if they are the kind of person who scoffs at lectures about what is and is not legal. To violate the 4th Amendment is to disrespect not only the person whose rights were directly attacked, but to disrespect the community as a whole - and the community (i.e., you) must clearly show that it will not be disrespected by those entrusted with authority and paid at taxpayer expense.
I cannot emphasize this enough: Responding this way is not merely a means toward enforcing the 4th Amendment, it is enforcing the 4th Amendment. You are enforcing the 4th Amendment by proactively asserting your expectation of its enforcement, engaging your local authorities, and responding assertively when violations occur.
Freedom is not something conceded to you, but something you assert on a daily basis, in dynamic ways as you interact socially and politically with others. Even if you fail to stop the violations, your actions - both officially and socially - will guarantee some level of consequences for them, and shape how authorities do their jobs. That is freedom, ladies and gentlemen: Not a government official who allows you to be free, but you yourself simply choosing to reward good governance and penalize bad governance, and thereby causing officials to be more careful.
Whether through votes, words in a conversation, or filing of official grievances, you shape your own government, and nowhere is that more powerful than on a local level where citizens and officials live next door to each other and can meet eyeball-to-eyeball. And, believe it or not, this has a significant impact above the local level: Where do you think state and federal law enforcement officers come from? Even if they were never local cops themselves, they grew up somewhere, and interacted with local police that inspired them to go into that profession. In the course of their jobs, they interact even more with local police departments.
Ditto with state and federal prosecutors: Plenty of them started out trying car thieves and burglars, and then moved on to trying murderers or big-time drug traffickers. That doesn't mean they're going to stay loyal to the law simply out of nostalgia for an engaged community's insistence on the 4th Amendment, but that experience shapes their perceptions and expectations, and does have a tangible effect that makes keeping them in line at the federal level that much easier.
And even if they have no personal commitment whatsoever to the Constitution, local cooperation is still vital in many state and federal investigations, and not many agents or prosecutors would want their case delayed or derailed just to play a power game. Moreover, although it has much less direct impact, you can also do the same things with state and federal officials that you do with local officials, although it might take longer to get an appointment, and you might be treated rather brusquely. But never believe that your involvement carries no weight, because they are people and they feel your expectations, even if they hate them and hate you for bringing them to their attention.
Even the simplest, most humble civic actions have cascading consequences throughout the body politic: This is the fact by which laws - the only real laws, not words written on a piece of paper - are enforced. If you enforce the 4th Amendment on a day to day basis in your own communities and show that you expect the same from your officials, the pressure of common law will be toward judicial recognition rather than away from it, and cases where judges flout the Constitution will have far less impact.
Law is not and never has been a question of it being respected by all officials, all the time, everywhere: The Constitution will always be violated somewhere, some time, because people are people and government consists of human beings. But if you do your part to uphold it as active, assertive citizens, then it lives regardless, and the American republic abides.