Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990 TAG: 9007180250
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, W.VA. LENGTH: Medium
Civil libertarians said the program would create "a paranoid atmosphere," and put West Virginia on the level of Albania, the hard-line communist nation, or Nazi Germany.
The program started on a small basis in February when the Williamson Daily News printed similar coupons on its own and invited people to fill them out and mail them to state police.
As a result, police in Williamson and Mingo County have received nearly 700 coupons listing the names, addresses or license plate numbers of suspected drug dealers or users.
Last month, federal, state and local authorities arrested 46 people in Mingo County as a result of the coupon tips. Wally Warden, editor of the Williamson newspaper, said six people have been convicted in local courts and plea agreements are being worked out in federal court for other suspects. No one has been sentenced, he said.
State police announced their own, statewide program Monday.
Now, the coupons will be available at state police detachments and will be carried by troopers in their cruisers, Trooper Ric Robinson said. They'll also be passed out at the state fair in August, he said.
Tipsters, who get no compensation, can fill out the names and addresses of drug users, the address of suspicious activity or the license plates of cars in the vicinity. The information can be called to a toll-free phone number, or mailed to state police headquarters.
A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union said the program would create a spying system among residents.
"It's the wrong way to fight the drug war," said Bob O'Brien, West Virginia delegate to the national board of the ACLU. "It creates a paranoid atmosphere, just the way it was in Germany in the '30s and '40s when people were encouraged to spy on their neighbors.
"It's the thing going on today in Romania and Albania, where people complained to their government about the sense of always being watched. This kind of program will not make us drug-free, it will just make us unfree."
Robinson said tipsters will only get the ball rolling.
"We don't expect the public to do the investigations for us," he said. "You supply us with the names, we'll do the investigation."
The tipster's name and address are optional. The coupon also promises tipsters: "Your confidentiality will be guarded."
However, O'Brien said that gives participants a "false hope of anonymity."
"If the state police issues a search warrant on the basis of one of these coupons, then the person at trial has the right to confront his accuser under the Sixth and 14th amendments," O'Brien said.
"So the person who makes one of these tips, if he signs the coupon, has a real likelihood of having to show up in court," he said.
by CNB