Ethics

More Police Overreach

By Ed Brayton

Balko highlights yet another case of a police chief who thinks criticizing him is a crime. This time it's Whitewater, Wisconsin police chief James Coan, who has been using police resources to try and find out the identity of a blogger who goes under the name John Adams. His website, Free Whitewater, has been harshly critical of Coan and other local officials.

According to Whitewater Police Department e-mails obtained by Adams under the state's open records law, Coan involved at least two detectives, the city's director of public works, its information technology officer and the city clerk -- all working on city time and using taxpayer-funded resources -- to find the identity of a man described as a "suspect" but who had not committed a crime.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on April 23, 2008 (boomark / email).