Kids Partying? Police Say, Call in the Helicopter

by Matt Kelley · 2010-06-03 05:48:00 UTC
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There's no greater threat to public safety than 16-year-olds drinking Miller High Life, right? Or that's what police in Albuquerque think, anyway.

How else to explain why they're pulling out all the stops — including using a police helicopter — to bust partiers suspected of that deadly sin: underage drinking?

Yes, the Bernalillo County Sheriff Department has launched a weekend "Party Patrol," complete with 16 deputies and a helicopter to bust partiers. On Saturday night, the patrol scored — arresting a 44-year-old man who was drinking with five kids under 21. Man, am I glad they got him.

Te-Ping wrote last week about the national problem of overzealous SWAT teams — they're shooting dogs and raiding the wrong houses because they have to stay active in order validate their existence and live up to their reality-show image. More than 50,000 SWAT deployments happen nationwide each year, and most of them are to serve warrants. Maybe underage parties could be a new opportunity for these bored SWAT teams?

Albuquerque's party patrol is yet another example of the absurd overpolicing that's created by our nation's tough-on-crime attitude and law enforcement arms race. If departments clamor for tax dollars to buy high-tech equipment, they better use it, right?

And this isn't the first time Albuquerque has made headlines for innovative — but sadly, backwards — law enforcement strategies. The Albuquerque Police Department (though separate from the Bernalillo County Sheriff) has its own rich history: back in 2008, the department advertised for snitches in a local paper.

The ad read: "Wanted: People who hang out with crooks to do part time work for APD. Make some extra cash. Drug use and criminal record OK."

Surely some solid tips came from that campaign. Maybe the snitches they recruited were even able to tell the cops about a few underage parties.

Via Gawker

Photo Credit: DVIDSHOPE

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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