Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan has treated Whitewater, WI (and Mankato, MN) to one of the greatest examples of dodgy answers in their respective histories. Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan is a candidate for the public safety director’s post in Mankato, Minnesota. I’ve written about his candidacy there before, in Signs of a Broken Police…
Police
City, Police, Press
Whitewater Chief Coan Interviews with Mankato [MN] Free Press
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan is a candidate for the public safety director’s post in Mankato, Minnesota. I’ve written about his candidacy before, in Whitewater’s Police Chief and the Job in Mankato, MN. The Mankato Free Press has published interviews with all four candidates for the job. The paper posed the same five questions to…
City, Police
“Ultimately” Responsible
by JOHN ADAMS •
I live and blog in a small rural town, of about fourteen thousand people, and one often imagines that such places are preserves of plain-speaking officials and straight-talking politicians. I suppose that many rural American towns are like that. We’re not one of them. Governance — official action first and foremost through law and legal…
City, Police, Press
Whitewater’s Police Chief and the Job in Mankato, MN
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, 6:21 PM: Fixed link for “What Happens in Vegas…” appearing below. Link now leads correctly to that post. Longtime readers of FREE WHITEWATER know that I have been a critic of Whitewater’s long-tenured (too long, really) police chief, Jim Coan. A search of this site offers ample analysis of Coan’s disappointing tenure in Whitewater,…
City, Police
Department of Embarrassing Coincidence, Whitewater, Wisconsin Branch Office
by JOHN ADAMS •
Before a holiday now connected in popular culture with a film, Groundhog Day, in which someone seems destined to live the same day over and over again, could there be any greater irony than publicizing that Whitewater’s police chief is again looking for another job? Here, gone, here, gone, here again. We have lived through…
City, Police
Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Police and Fire Commission Cancelled for Tonight
by JOHN ADAMS •
Oh cruel Nature, harsh force that she is! How is it that she acts to deprive our small city of a gathering by its most extraordinary public commission? I can think of no better example of misused and unused oversight in all Wisconsin. The many serious and dedicated officers of our town have been ill-served…
City, Police
The Unfortunate Choice of Words
by JOHN ADAMS •
I have contended that a community benefits from a vigorous press, one that is willing to question incumbent politicians and bureaucrats. It’s one of the ways that the press in Whitewater, Wisconsin fails the community: asking hard questions of officials seems like treason. To someone in Chicago or Atlanta, that’s absurd; newspapers, television, and radio…
City, Police
Vandalism and Alcohol
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s had more than its share of property damage from vandalism. Strong property rights make a for a strong community; free markets in private property are the foundation of a productive society. We have vandalism, too, and just about everyone contends that much of it comes from over-drinking, leaving a bar, after weekend last call.…
City, Police
Trust, but Verify
by JOHN ADAMS •
Every community relies — and wants to rely — on its police force for protection. Therein rests the honor and burden of the right to use force on behalf of the community: that trust is readily given, and a worthy leadership in return commits to a practice of openness and verification. It was Reagan to…
City, Police
Whitewater’s Latest Police and Fire Commission Meeting, of May 2009
by JOHN ADAMS •
Has Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan already hired a trainer for Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission members? Earlier this week, on May 20th, 2009, Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission met for a quarterly meeting. They met in a small conference room, rather than a chamber suitable for public attendance, and unlike so many other public…
Police, Press
“Riding (along) in the fast lane!”
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Police
What Happens in Vegas…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, 2/09/10: Coan’s account of his travels is no longer online. I challenge the City of Whitewater to put that work back online. The Travels of Marco Polo are readily available online, so why not Coan’s series? The original link to the City Manager’s Weekly Report for 3/13/09 is no longer online, as the city…
Inbox Reader Mail, Police
Inbox: Reader Mail – Whitewater Citizen Police Academy
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received an email over the weekend asking if I’d comment on the post and pictures on Whitewater’s Citizen Police Academy, published recently at the Whitewater Banner. I will. I’ll take my time, though, with replies that consider the Citizen Academy as policy, public relations, open government, and journalism. Strictly speaking, a consideration of the…
Libertarians, Police
Missouri Libertarian Party Condemns Missouri Highway Patrol Training Document as Political Profiling
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Missouri, a state highway patrol memo ignorantly linking members of the Libertarian Party (America’s third largest party) with militant fringe groups is the subject of the Missouri LP’s legitimate anger. One finds many people who are ignorant of what the LP represents, but surely someone in government must have been able to visit the…