COLUMN: Police baiting seems unethical Lizzen Up
When I was 18 years old, I bought my first car — a manual ’98 Mustang. It was fast, fun, loud, and I thought I was pretty slick speeding around town in it.
One night, coming home from a friend’s house, I pulled up to a stoplight with two cars next to me. One was a brand-new Mustang, red and white — far nicer than mine — and the other was a tricked-out black Durango.
The Durango revved its engine; I responded in the same way with the other Mustang. When the stoplight finally turned green, we took off. Amazingly, I kept up until I reached the speed limit and hit the brakes. The moment the other Mustang broke the speed limit, red and blue lights flashed in the Durango’s rear windshield, and the Mustang pulled over while I drove away.
A little more recently, I was reminded of this incident while driving my car through Sardine Canyon when I heard an announcement on the radio about an impending sting operation carried out by the Logan Police Department. I remembered the way the police car waited on the street side to pounce on the first violator. The objective of this sting operation was to catch adults buying alcohol for minors, more specifically, for minors the police department hired. In both instances, the police are staking out to catch people at their worst.
“To defend and protect the rights and safety of those who live, work, and visit in the City of Logan,” is the mission of the LPD, according to their website.
I could hardly retain, “Yeah right,” as I read it.
Rumors and complaints abound, concerning the LPD. Houses and cars are searched without warrants, lies are told to undermine the rights of unaware citizens, and some youngsters are coerced into tattling on their friends in exchange for promises of getting off easy.
I’m bothered by the actions I’ve observed local police take, and no one who lives, or has lived, among college students in Logan can deny it is occurring. But nothing annoys me quite as much as learning about police baiting, intending to catch otherwise innocent civilians.
Technically speaking, entrapment occurs only if a law enforcement agent induces a person to commit a crime that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit. But if a policeman offers an opportunity to commit a crime, and the citizen engages in it, entrapment has typically not occurred.
For example, if a “bait car” is left readily available to steal, the thief is guilty. But if an undercover cop offers a person drugs, and that person accepts, the cop may be guilty.
You’re probably thinking, “What’s the difference?” I’m thinking the same thing.
The general idea is that guilt lies with whoever originally contrived the crime — a very murky concept, indeed — and the crime is often distinguishable only by experienced judges and lawyers.
But whether or not an officer can technically create guilt by prompting a crime to occur does not suggest the officer’s actions are ethical. The idea that our police — using taxpayers’ resources — can take teens and have them ask adults to purchase liquor makes me sick. The myriad of reasons for my feelings seems almost too simple to break down, but the most fundamental reason is that somehow breaking the law to catch someone else breaking the law is ludicrous.
These adults who are set up by police and caught providing alcohol to minors are not criminals. They’re imperfect people who made a stupid decision when presented an opportunity to do so — something we have all done. And in the meantime, genuinely guilty adults who regularly buy kids alcohol — I’m sure you know guilty parents — remain uncaught and uncharged.
In addition, those teens used as bait are usually in trouble themselves and are bribed into this bad behavior to get out of consequences.
This sends an ironic message to them — “Don’t you dare break the law. That is, unless police say it’s OK, in which case, go right ahead.”
The idea of placing bait cars is troublesome. In cities where car theft is a serious problem and crime rates are high, what do bait cars do? Create more crime. If police forces put more effort into catching criminals in the act, they wouldn’t have to present opportunities to allow the average person to screw up.
With extremely serious and dangerous problems, such as heavy-duty methamphetamine trafficking, undercover police work is understandable and necessary. But for crimes, such as underage drinking and street racing, deception and coercion by our city police force is, in my opinion, ethically wrong.
– Liz Emery is a senior majoring in English. Her column runs every other week. Comments on her column can be sent to statesmanoffice@aggiemail.usu.edu.