The Fargo North Dakota Sheriffs Department recently advertised a concert featuring Ozzy Osbourne and sent invitations to more than 30 criminal suspects with outstanding arrest warrants in their jurisdiction. However, there was actually no concert planned, and the advertising was all part of a police sting tactic to round up missing suspects and “Court Dodgers.”
A spokesperson for the Fargo Sheriffs Department admitted that the force had used a “creative” solution to bring suspects to justice, and that the round up had been highly successful.
But not everyone is happy about these “creative” tactics. Ozzy Osbourne has stated that he found the suspect round-up to be “insulting,” and requested that his name not be used in association with any new “creative” crime-fighting strategies.
Using a celebrity to lure in individuals with outstanding criminal warrants is just one of many new methods being employed by police organizations around the country, facing hundreds and sometimes thousands of court dodging suspects. Paul Laney, of the Cass County Sheriff department in North Dakota, stated that police officers had simply used a “creative law enforcement technique to lure individuals who had active criminal warrants to come to us.”
Still, Osbourne was not impressed and issued the following statement according to the BBC News web site:
“Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests.”
Neither Osbourne’s record label nor management had any comment when asked if they would pursue legal action on behalf of the singer, but made it clear that Ozzy found the action “insulting,” adding “it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.”
But the Fargo Sheriff Department is not the first police organization in the US to use this type of “celebrity entrapment.” Celebrity names as diverse as Garth Brooks, Pamela Anderson and Bon Jovi have all been used in similar cases to ensnare missing suspects with outstanding arrest warrants. And by all accounts, the strategy has been a great success, as the recent example using Ozzy Osbourne demonstrates.
But is this in fact a “creative” way for law-enforcement officials to conduct business, or a “lazy” and “insulting” tactic that damages both the name and reputation of the celebrities involved? Legal experts point out that the new strategy has so far not been tested in court, and since it has proven to be somewhat effective, there is a good chance that many law enforcement organizations around the country will continue to use it.
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