Private Traffic Stops, Never Mind the Cops

Declan McCullagh of Politech provides a fascinating set of links and stories involving an institute–the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation–that specializes in getting government grants to do research that, wouldn't you know, gives government cover to take away more liberty when it comes to alcohol and drugs.

Seems that the institute got the Gilpin County Sheriff's office in Colorado to help them stop drivers at checkpoints to submit to–purely voluntary!–breath, blood, and saliva analysis.

The Denver Post's story on the incident, for which the Sheriff's office apologized when citizens reported feeling quite a bit of pressure to comply when stopped by blue jump-suited people accompanied by cops asking them for precious bodily fluids and the very breath of life itself.

McCullagh's reason archives.