Police in La Crosse (WI) issued a Crime Stoppers alert and video surveillance video of a woman wrongly suspected of using a stolen credit card at a convenience store.
Two different women carried out separate transactions about 20 seconds apart. One was fraudulent. Police chose the wrong one and ran the video images of her for 3 days before a co-worker told her they'd seen her on Crime Stoppers.
Police said they felt horrible about the mistake and sent the un-named woman an apology.They may feel worse when she gets a good lawyer - a few of these and Crime Stoppers will be off air in no time.
Meanwhile their eqaully bright counterparts in Australia have tried to set up a public spy network so 'witnesses' can send 'anonymous' videos and emails to Police. It should be interesting, especially seeing that it can't legally be used in court as 'evidence'
anyway. But I suppose that never stopped the (in)famous NSW police worrying about legality before.