Nov.02.2007
9:21 am
by Gwen Bristol
Fargo sting operation raises honesty questions
Well, it’s not so much about honesty as it is about strategy: should police officers be able to use deception to keep other people safe? Something like undercover cops or creative sting operations like the pre-Ozzie bash sting in Fargo the other day?
From the KMXC news article (link above):
And while some are calling the departments tactics tricky…sheriff laney says he’s just fighting creativity with creativity. he says fugitives use all kinds of clever ideas to hid from the law…so the law is using a few ideas of it’s own.
laney:its no different if you were looking at a Football game a baseball game or anything else we just took an event that was taking place in fargo to hold a pre-concert bash it’s not tied to that at all.
And laney says with such success…he’s not ruling out another creative sting in the future. making the odd’s of becoming a winner…even better.
And if you’re wondering if this can be considered entrapment, Laney says no.
His men did not aid or cause anyone to commit a crime.
Deputies arrested people who have already committed crimes.
This particular sting operation is causing quite a stir over at SayAnything. Not to mention other places in the world where Ozzie fans are outraged (along with Ozzie himself, it sounds like) because Ozzie’s name was used to promote the pre-bash party where the sting took place.
From a wider perspective, the operation has implications for the entire nation. How far should police officers go?
According to the article, Sheriff Laney and his deputies gave all that was promised and more. Tricky, sure, but dishonest? I think it’s just critical thinking. Sheriff Laney used strategy to the benefit of general society.
More to the point, it’s this kind of strategy and creative thinking that allows us to form better government and not bigger government. I imagine the Fargo sting operation saved resources in time, money and manpower that would have had to be used to track these guys down otherwise.
Sphere: Related ContentFiled in Better not Larger Government |
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