People should be scared, I know I am.
I don't trust law enforcement as far as I can throw them, despite a bunch of laws put in place to protect OUR rights and our privacy, but the cops really could care less about the actual law - because they think it doesn't apply to them.
It's like the whole, having to have a warrant to do a FLIR flyover thing. Of course they know they're supposed to have a warrant, but they know that once they've already done the "illegal" search they will turn up plenty of "probable causes" AFTER the fact so like you said, they don't have to mention the illegal search at all.
Shit like that makes me scared to throw out my trash, you know?