The Tulsa Whirl today has amazingly covered the egregious actions of a bureaucratic government monopoly. The agency in question is the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training. Broken Arrow Police Chief Wuestewald is feeling the wrath of a government monopoly when its turf is being threatened. "CLEET" oversees police officer training for most statewide agencies. Though it is nice to finally see a major Oklahoma publication cover a story of potential political intimidation, where are the stories and follow up stories examining the alleged political intimidation of Attorney General Drew Edmondson and State Auditor & Inspector Jeff McMahan? Chief Wuestedwald is concerned with the amount of training hours CLEET graduates are required to have. CLEET requires a minimum of 360 hours of training to certify officers. A state-trained cosmetologist, meanwhile, receives about 1,500 hours of training. He is proposing to start his own police academy. He has told government authorities he is ready to proceed, he only needs approval. "We already have the trainers on staff; we've got the facility." "The curriculum is already written." "We will fund it ourselves." Read more... Posted at 1/16/2007 08:33:00 AM