You Heard It Here First -- And You Still Won't Find It In The Eau Claire Paper

In lieu of a blog I wrote on August 8, 2007, "Eau Claire Police Has Paid Informers", yesterday's Leader-Telegram front page headline jumped out at me:

"Double Trouble"
Drunken driving arrests up sharply in Eau Claire

I figured that in the story they would come clean - Instead:

"Eau Claire police officers stopped more than twice as many drunken drivers in the first nine months of this year as in the same period in 2005.

And the 350 drunken driving arrests made by the Eau Claire Police Department since January have already exceeded the 2006 year-end total of 332.

"It hard to say what it's attributed to," said Jason Kaveney, ECPD's community relations officer. There hasn't been any new grant or special emphasis on drunken driving enforcement in the last year, he said.

In that August 8 blog, I said that I have an eye witness to the fact that the Eau Claire Police Department is paying informers, whether they be bartenders, gas station attendants, or late night waiters, waitresses, to call the police if they even smell alcohol on customers' breath.

If that tip leads to making the Eau Claire Police look really good in the paper by leading to an arrest, the informer receives $50.00.

So actually, Jason, it shouldn't be so hard to say what it's attributed to. It's attributed to having a state where you can get one citizen to inform upon another.

Let's see, where I have I heard that before -- oh yes, high school history class -- totalitarianism in Russia and Eastern Bloc.

Scary.

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