Off-duty police officers in two Alabama counties set up roadblocks this past weekend to collect saliva and blood samples from drivers as they came through. Birmingham radio personality Matt Murphy broke the story on his show this morning.
St. Clair and Bibb County participated in the program, which the St. Clair Sheriff’s office says was coordinated by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA).
“They’ve got big signs up that says ‘paid volunteer survey’ and if they want to participate they pull over there and they ask them questions,” Lt. Freddie Turrentine of the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department told The Daily Caller. “If they are willing to give them a mouth swab they give them $10 and if they are willing to give them a blood sample they give them $50. And if they don’t do anything they drive off.”
The saliva and blood samples were apparently being taken as part of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) program aimed at getting a better understanding of inebriation patterns. The study is being conducted by The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE). PIRE refers to themselves as “one of the nation’s preeminent independent, nonprofit organizations focusing on individual and social problems associated with the use of alcohol and other drugs.”
“They are trying to say ‘okay after this hour at night, out of these 75,000 people 10 percent of them had alcohol in their blood or 12 percent of them had some kind of narcotic in their blood. That is all they’re doing, for impaired driving,’” Turrentine said.
Matt Murphy followed up on the story this evening, taking to Twitter with news that Governor Bentley’s office had no knowledge of the program. That is an especially salient point considering the ongoing national debate over the federal government’s intrusion into our personal lives and their frequent disregard for states’ sovereignty.
“Voluntary” DNA Swab checkpoints ordered by Feds did NOT run program through State, according to @robertbentley‘s office #alpolitics
— Matt Murphy (@mattmurphyshow) June 11, 2013
Senior Source w/ @governorbentley: “First we heard of it was at today’s senior staff meeting”RE: #BamaDNA swabbing. StClair/Bibb Co
— Matt Murphy (@mattmurphyshow) June 11, 2013
Yellowhammer reached out to one of Governor Bentley’s senior staffers who said they are working to get to the bottom of it.
“The Governor’s office knew nothing about it,” the Bentley aide said on condition of anonymity. “We are trying to figure out what happened. No one in any official capacity inside ADECA approved the roadblocks. ADECA works frequently with NHTSA, so there’s a chance some low-level staffer went rogue and thought they were just helping out. The Governor has directed his most senior staffers to get to the bottom of what happened.”
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange was even more direct. “I learned about this from news reports today,” Strange told Yellowhammer. “I am shocked. This is very troubling and I intend to get to the bottom of it.”
Would you have given a blood or saliva sample to off-duty police officers on the side of the road? Is it acceptable that they were there doing it in the first place? What do you expect Governor Bentley and Attorney General Strange to do?
Pro tip: if you decide to give your DNA to a random person on the hwy, at least get more than $60 for it. @mattmurphyshow
— Yellowhammer (@YHPolitics) June 10, 2013
What else is going on?
1. Rep. Mo Brooks sounds off on NSA surveillance revelations
2. Beeker challenging Dunn in PSC Republican primary
3. Sessions fires opening salvo in Senate floor debate on immigration reform
4. Alabama climatologist crushes enviros
5. Approval rating of Alabama GOP majority continues to rise
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