Police here in Wisconsin turn to a lot of different methods when it comes to drug crime enforcement. This includes well-known police tactics like detailed investigations, undercover operations, property searches and using informants. It can also include some less traditional tactics, such as tactics involving social media.
Just how odd these less-traditional measures can get can be seen in something that recently happened here in Wisconsin. Last month, the police department of Sparta, Wisconsin put up a sarcastic post regarding meth on its Facebook page.
The post said that there was a possibility that crumbled rock salt was being sold as counterfeit meth. The post then suggested that, given this, individuals who have meth or meth-related paraphernalia may want to take such things to a police station to be “tested” to see if they have received counterfeit meth. Among the lines this post included were: “We can only imagine how horrible a salty meth pipe is.”
One wonders if using humor and tongue-in-cheek social media posts in relation to drug crime enforcement is something more Wisconsin police departments will do in upcoming months and years. One also wonders what the overall impacts of this type of police social media conduct are.
Now, whatever methods police in the state use in their drug crime enforcement, whether they be more traditional ones or fairly odd ones, it is very important that they respect people’s rights. So, in drug crime cases, one issue that can be a very big one is whether the suspect’s rights were at all violated by any of the tactics police used in their case. Skilled criminal defense attorneys understand how important carefully looking into this issue can be in cases involving drug crime accusations.
Source: UPI, “Wis. police urge meth users to have fake drugs ‘tested’ at station,” Eric DuVall, Jan. 21, 2017