A recent sting in which detectives spent hundreds of dollars getting drunk at a local strip club that ultimately surrendered its liquor license struck some in the community as clear case of the morality police at work.
Letters to The Gazette and commenters on message boards decried the crack down on PT’s Showclub, which was cited for alleged liquor law violations. A visibly drunk detective continued to be served alcohol, but none of the employees were enticed into having sex for money, according to the report.
Assigning seven detectives, who spent $700 for drinks and entertainment on March 5, represented a “severe distortion of priorities,” wrote one letter writer.
The commander whose judgment they were questioning, Lt. John Godsey, defended the sting and believes much of the criticism stems from misunderstandings about how the unit’s investigators do undercover work and how it’s paid for.
“There was certainly an assumption that it was taxpayer funded,” Godsey, who heads the multi-agency Metro, Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence unit, said. “That was unfortunate.”
No taxpayer funds were used to “entertain” anyone, he said. Instead, the $700 came from money seized in other undercover investigations.
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