The Whitewater, Wisconsin police chief James Coan has sent two police detectives on a mission. They (and several other city employees, including the director of public works, the information technology officer, and the city clerk) are to spend their paid time trying to find out the identity of an anonymous blogger.

Is this blogger accused of breaking any laws? No. He is only accused of criticizing the police chief and his department. They’re still calling him a “suspect,” though.

The blogger writes under the pen name John Adams, and authors the blog Free Whitewater. The blog has been up and running for almost a year, and regularly criticizes government officials and policies. The writer says that police chief James Coan misuses his position.

And it seems that this “investigation” into the blogger’s identity would support that accusation quite strongly. Who in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to use police resources and other city employees to try to track down this man’s identity? The blogger says he’s staying anonymous because protecting free speech is important… And I suspect that if his identity was known, that certain people would try blackmailing him into taking down the site.

The police chief defends himself, saying the taxpayer funded employee time was “minimal” and that he needed assess the “potential threats” from the blogger. (No, it doesn’t appear that the blogger was “threatening” anyone. Merely that the fact that he exposes government officials and acts seems threatening to the chief.)

And the police chief has already tried to intimidate one suspect who was incorrectly fingered as the blogger.

This case clearly has legal implications, as some have suggested that the police chief was deliberately trying to squelch free speech by intimidating (directly or indirectly) this blogger with his use of government resources.