Shocking Police Action in Fort Worth Generates Controversy

Even George Orwell would find this one hard to believe.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is engaging in what they’ve called a ‘voluntary program’, in which drivers are being asked at roadblocks to pull over and offer breath, blood and saliva samples-for a price.

According to a story by NBC 5 in Fort Worth, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, working for the NHTSA as a contractor, set up a check-point on Beach Street in North Fort Worth.  Off-duty officers from the Fort Worth Police Department reportedly took part in the ‘voluntary survey’.

One individual interviewed by NBC 5 said she gestured that she just wanted to go straight ahead but was forced into a parking spot off the street-

"They were asking for cheek swabs...They would give $10 for that. Also, if you let them take your blood, they would pay you $50 for that."

The ‘survey’, funded by the NHTSA, is a three-year, $7.9 million project that is supposed to determine the number of drunk or drug-impaired drivers. It's being conducted in some 30 cities nationwide. Isn’t that what we, the taxpayers of communities across the state, are paying our police and sheriff’s offices to do?

The Fort Worth Police Department has since offered an apology to the citizens of Fort Worth. The project smacks of yet another ‘Big Brother’ scheme by the federal government.

See the complete story from NBC 5 by clicking here.  Be sure to take our poll below.