OPINIONS COLLIDE ON POLICE STING

Editor's Note:

During The News-Press editorial board's lively discussion of the recent
sting operation carried out by a Fort Myers police officer masquerading as
an employee at a McDonald's restaurant drive-through window, it became
obvious that our board members' views were all over the place.

So we decided to do something a little different: Present the signed
opposing views of two board members, Martha Hill and Mark Stephens.

Mark Stephens: City's McSting McStinks

Martha Hill: Operation gets thumbs up

Where do you weigh in? E-mail us at mailbag@news-press.com.

City's McSting McStinks

Some people are so fed up with crime that they're willing to endorse just
about any police scheme for reducing it.

But disguising an undercover cop as a server at a drive-through restaurant
window goes too far for my tastes, even if it is technically legal. I
suspect it makes a lot of people uneasy.

It puts Big Brother's big nose right in the middle of people's private
business, with no reason to think that more than a tiny percentage of those
pulling up to that window might be criminals.

Those defending the Fort Myers Police Department McSting say a person has
no "expectation of privacy" in a car in a public place. But you do have an
expectation that the police will not be screening virtually at random the
activities of the innocent masses as they go about the basics of life, such
as killing themselves with junk food.

Some McDonald's employees had been seeing drugs and guns in the cars in the
drive-through and were frustrated because there was nothing they could do.
How about getting a tag number and calling a cop so action could be taken
against that actual suspect, instead of police surveillance of all your
customers?

We want people to report crime and for the police to respond quickly and
effectively. But although this fishing expedition netted some drug
violations, most arrests and citations were traffic-related.

I suspect this operation made a lot of people uneasy, including the
McDonald's franchise owners, who made clear that the sting did not have
their approval. I doubt they'd be dumb enough to allow it because it simply
gives people the creeps.

Some might say that if people have nothing to hide, they have nothing to
fear. That's bad citizenship based on ignorance of history. Don't assume
the state has the right to check up on you. Insist on a good reason. The
question to ask of all police surveillance activity is not "why not?" but
"why?"

- --Mark Stephens

Operation gets thumbs up

The work of an undercover Fort Myers police officer dressed as a McDonald's
employee working the drive-through window on different days produced six
arrests and 29 citations.

The Fort Myers Police Department deserves thumbs up for this bold operation.

While many would call this as an assault on civil rights rather than a
needed battle in the war on drugs it is promising to see our local police
use the same creativity as the druggies working the streets.

Many are pushing to legalize drugs, but while they are illegal, cops must
use any means at their disposal to stop those who poison society,
particularly our youth.

Shielded by their civil rights protections, criminals have managed to work
around the entire judicial system to the detriment of the welfare and
safety of all people.

In the meantime, aggressive law enforcement schemes that intrude on
people's private lives to help these very people often face the outcry of
society. But this is a war just as the war on terrorism. If we want to win
it, we must give up our rights in the name of order and safety.

In a war everyone becomes a suspect. All must be observed, checked,
screened, tested and admonished -- the guilty and innocent alike. When
suspects are caught, the full force of the law should be expected to fall
upon the guilty.

Without public support it is very difficult for police to fight against
drugs and other crimes. It is unfair for cops to be walking on eggs every
time they're faced with arresting suspected criminals.

- -- Martha Hill