The Whitewater police tell us, repeatedly, that the Star Packaging raid, and their former requests of motorists for Social Security numbers, were efforts to prevent identity theft. There are three reasons that Whitewater’s identity theft investigations are wolves in sheep’s clothing:
1. WPD identity theft investigations target groups where there are a disproportionate number of immigrants. (I know of no white collar, professional identity theft investigations in Whitewater, unless our police department has recently conjured one into existence.)
2. WPD’s award-winning, recently-honored, retiree Larry Meyer acknowledged under judicial examination that in his Star Packaging ‘identity theft’ investigation, the only names he selected for follow-up were Hispanic-sounding surnames. Previously, Meyer had been accused of harassing the Mexican-American workers at a local landscaping business (and is named in a lawsuit that the businessman filed).
3. Real identity theft — not the odd, distorted definition that the Whitewater police use — involves theft of consumer credit cards, access to bank accounts to pilfer funds, etc. Responsible departments do not apply identity theft the way it’s used in our small city, where it was a prelude to a call to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. That’s what the attorney for the owner of Star Packaging explained recently, as quoted in The Week:
“This is one of these situations in which the state is using a statute that, I think, probably wasn’t too much to be used in this fashion,” Glynn said. “The typical use of identity theft (law) is somebody getting a copy of someone else’s charge card and securing property or goods or services on the bases of using it. That’s what most people have in mind. They don’t have in mind someone getting a job that the other’s aren’t seeking.”
Truly responsible and truly professional police forces, unlike our police department, know that identity theft is a serious matter of consumer fraud, not an opening wedge to an immigration action. See, for example, the identity theft prevention websites of the UW Milwaukee Police, the Michigan State Police, New Jersey State Police, or the Police Chief magazine. They do not describe identity theft actions remotely like what Jim Coan has done in our city. (Note also, that Coan did not take the article in Police Chief magazine to heart, perhaps because he’s not a subscriber, or let his subscription lapse, or just skipped reading an issue here or there.)
That’s why I’ve previously described Coan this way:
I have been asked why Coan is an arch-apologist for just about any police conduct, when so many who listen to him find him unconvincing and overly-defensive of the Whitewater police. The answer is that he’s not speaking to persuade the whole town, or even a large part of it; his words are reassurance for a small, mostly town-bred, elite. They want — and expect — that he will never yield or admit fault on any significant matter. Second, his simple, ceaseless defense of the Whitewater force has the consequence of dissuading common, thoughtful residents from the hope of correcting the problems within the force, and of making it truly professional. Finally, Coan may believe — perhaps correctly, too — that if he repeats the same contentions long enough, others will believe them….Coan is a Mynah bird of excuses, rationalizations, and self-praise, of himself, and the Whitewater police.