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 has a new website, and many documents formerly online no longer are. I have my own copy of that report, though, that I have made available.
In a post from December 2007, entitled, “Cat Has Your Tongue?” I chided Whitewater officials for supporting confidentiality regarding litigation against the City of Whitewater while they simultaneously jabbered ridiculously discoursed profoundly on any number of topics.
One of the oddest of officials’ efforts has been Police Chief Jim Coan’s Parallels in Policing series. Here’s what I wrote then:
Travelogues. Coan offers readers a four-page account of his ride along with the New Orleans police department after Hurricane Katrina. That community suffered greatly from the storm, and Coan’s humanitarian instincts led him to there as a passenger in a local police vehicle. It’s not Travels with Charley, but it is revealing reading. Coan’s account acknowledges that policing in New Orleans has limited resemblance to policing Whitewater. One might have guessed as much, but still Coan made the trip. The New Orleans account is part 4 (yes, part 4) in Coan’s Parallels in Policing series. He’s also been to New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Perhaps one might also remind Coan that in Euclidean geometry, parallel lines do not intersect, and the cities he’s chosen are about as far removed from ours as one could expect in America.
If Coan likes traveling in a car so much, perhaps he would like a bus even better. Greyhound offers reasonably priced, one-way tickets to Arizona, and it’s beautiful there this time of year. Why wait?
A mature man or woman would be embarrassed by these narcissistic reports and newsletters. Coan must be proud of them, or he wouldn’t write and post them.
Turns out, Coan’s not done — he’s recently paid a visit to — wait for it — Las Vegas. The Whitewater City Manager’s Weekly Report for March 13th has the details:
Police Chief Coan Spends Time with Las Vegas Police Department Police Chief Jim Coan spent some time this week with the Las Vegas Police Department. On his own time and at his own expense, Chief Coan did a ride-along with members of the LVPD on Tuesday evening. Coan now has been on ride-alongs with some of the largest and most notable police departments in the U.S. including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and New Orleans and hopes to ride along with the Washington D.C. PD in the future.
Coan notes that these ride- along experiences have really broadened his perspective on policing and police work – and have been very interesting, fun, and exciting as well.
It may have been on Coan’s time and expense, but it was Las Vegas’s time and expense, too. What could the Las Vegas force (city population of 552,539) possibly learn from a visit from Chief Coan of Whitewater (city population 14,296)?
Alternatively, if someone wanted to apply useful lessons from elsewhere to Whitewater, might not one expect that the cities visited looked more like Middle America, and less like major cities (some of which are vacation spots, some more like a gawker’s dream)?
I cannot wait for the published account of Coan’s latest ride along. I’ll keep looking. If someone would like to send me an advance copy, I’m accepting birthday cards email at adams@freewhitewater.com.
By the way, I’ll be in Las Vegas this summer, also at my own expense, to attend Freedom Fest, the World’s Largest Gathering of Free Minds. Guest speakers for the 2009 gathering include Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, and David Boaz of Cato, among many others.
I’ll blog on the event, with info on the panels, breakout sessions, parties, and slice of life stories of others attending from across America.
(And if, by the way, at any point during my stay I find myself in a patrol car, I can assure you that it will be for something more meaningful than an asinine ride along and travelogue.)