The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is spending $7.9 million on the survey over three years, said participation was “100 percent voluntary” and anonymous.
But Cope said it didn’t feel voluntary to her — despite signs saying it was.
…
Fort Worth police earlier said they could not immediately find any record of officer involvement but police spokesman Sgt. Kelly Peel said Tuesday that the department’s Traffic Division coordinated with the NHTSA on the use of off-duty officers after the agency asked for help with the survey.
“We are reviewing the actions of all police personnel involved to ensure that FWPD policies and procedures were followed,” he said. “We apologize if any of our drivers and citizens were offended or inconvenienced by the NHTSA National Roadside Survey.”
NBC DFW confirmed that the survey was done by a government contractor, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which is based in Calverton, Md.
Note that it was off-duty police officers working on behalf of a **private contractor** (who, in turn, was doing work on behalf of NHTSA) who engaged in this roadblock. I wonder if the fact that they were working for a private contractor changes anything?
I’m going to see if I can find anything that might show how this private contractor (headquartered in D.C., of course) might have paid someone to push for this “study.”
Can’t help but wonder if this wasn’t what was going on that morning in Temecula, too.
