Identity mistakes are all over the news these days, but I particularly enjoyed this story about a Kentucky sheriff who drove all the way across America, picked up the wrong guy, and then drove him back across America before realizing he had arrested the wrong man:

When Oros got to the Butler County Jail and again claimed he wasn’t the right person, Jailer Terry Fugate pulled a mugshot, which looked like a different person.

“That guy is ugly,” Oros told The Courier-Journal of Louisville of his impostor. “I’m pretty.”

After finding the mistake, Butler County officials paid for Oros to fly back to California. Meanwhile, the real suspect they were searching for is still on the lam.

The benefit of having your identity stolen in Kentucky, apparently, is a taxpayer financed road trip. Meals, clothing and tour-guide as well as the return flight are provided. You can argue against going on the trip, but those Kentucky public servants are not so easily fooled:

Gaddie told The Daily News of Bowling Green that Oros told them he wasn’t the man they were looking for, “but nearly everyone says that on this type of retrieval.”

Everyone? Does that include people who do not match the mug-shot of the wanted suspect? Funny how that factor is conveniently overlooked. I guess if you trust the word of no-one, then you should probably be prepared with additional forms of verification, no?

“Nobody here in Butler County did anything wrong,” Gaddie said. “Everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

I disagree. The people who were trying to identify a suspect did not use a reliable form of identification. They used a known-faulty and singular data point — a name.

The comment from Gaddie looks like a form of glib reassurance, as though admitting fault would be unacceptable. The “just following procedures” argument is a pathetic excuse in this case. The facts speak for themselves — sloppy work led to an expensive false arrest and detention. Anyone who reads the news knows about identity theft. Sheriffs should be more professional and use caution before blowing a county budget on a wild goose chase.

Oros could have contributed to the confusion when he signed an extradition waiver.

That sounds like “blame the victim”.

The Louisville newspaper reported that Oros asked prison officials in California to verify his claims that he wasn’t the right person, but they apparently didn’t run the check and Oros signed the waiver allowing him to be transferred without a hearing.

“I asked him why he signed the waiver of extradition,” Gaddie said. “And he said he didn’t know what he was signing.”

Or perhaps he knew that he was signing a free road trip across America at the expense of Kentucky tax payers? But seriously, the burden seems to be that a man had to prove his innocence even though the only thing tying him to a crime was his name. Now prison officials, as well as law enforcement officers, are implicated in this strange tale of guilty by name until proven innocent.

Oros told the Louisville paper that he enjoyed the ride to Kentucky – his first trip outside California.

“They fed me good,” he said. “They were entirely nice people.”

Sign up now for your free trip.

When their fingerprints didn’t match, Oros was removed from his cell and officials began making arrangements to get him back home. Oros, who recently graduated from barber college, thanked the deputy jailers by giving them free haircuts.

“They all look good now,” he said.

Mugshot did not match, fingerprint did not match; the only match was the name. Brilliant. Will anybody be told what “they are supposed to do” so this does not happen again? How nice of Oros to let his jailers off the hook. He seems like a very trusting guy.

I doubt the county was motivated to import a recent barber college graduate for haircuts so it still stands to reason that sloppy detective work and lack of information security awareness is at the heart of this sad but funny story.

The Norwegian King’s Guard clearly has a cute sense of honor:

The original Nils Olav first became an honorary member of the regiment in 1972, when a young lieutenant called Nils Egelien visited the penguins at the zoo, but died in the 1980s, and was replaced by the current Nils Olav.

The photo is by the Associated Press and they have a nice collection of similar shots. It really does look like Nils Olav is doing an inspection. I wonder if the guard uses fish oil or similar scent to keep Nils engaged.

Exciting news from the NYT; electric streetcars are coming back to the American urban experience:

…Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus, Ohio, has come to the same conclusion and is pushing to build a $103 million streetcar network along the city’s High Street connecting Ohio State University with the downtown business district. The loop would be paid for through a 4 percent surcharge on concert tickets, sporting events and downtown parking and a $12.5 million contribution from Ohio State.

“It is directly tied to economic development, and when times are tough in Ohio, we need an additional tool to create jobs,” Mr. Coleman said.

While critics question whether scarce city money would be better spent elsewhere, Mr. Coleman argues that streetcars are important to the city’s growth.

“We have to plan for the future,” he said. “I believe in 10 years, we would ask, ‘Why didn’t we do this?’ It will be 10 times more expensive, and the cost of gas will be unaffordable.”

Wow, this is fantastic. I am really heartened to hear that Mayors are able to see clearly as they strategically plan for affordable and clean public transportation.

A libertarian critic is cited in the article, mostly because he says officials are falling “for the hype”. Hype? This is a concept as old as the hills and the technology is hardly the sort of thing to write home about. The only hype I see is from people who say our standard of living will sustain, let alone improve, if we allow big oil to drill into every last orifice on the globe. That means you too, by the way. Bend over…

“It looks like it’s going to take you somewhere, but it’s only designed to support downtown residents,” [O’Toole] said.

Er, you mean downtown residents including business owners, O’Toole? It not only looks like it will take you somewhere, but it actually does take you somewhere, unlike a car with no gas. Individual ownership of vehicles in the city makes about as much sense as individual ownership of buildings rather than tenant-in-common or condos. Density brings forth economies of scale and benefits from a sum greater than the whole, which I am sure are alien concepts to O’Toole. He would value singular gains more than any shared success, and would probably advocate going in circles like a one-armed man in a rowboat.

Moreover, automobiles and buses are appealing only until you realize that the gasoline engine has a petroleum-based umbilical cord that ultimately chokes urban areas to death. The story I heard was that the tire, oil, and bus manufacturers created holding companies that tried to kill off streetcars in America. They were not only successful, but they recouped their investments in under ten years (due to sales of tires, fuel, and vehicles) as people were coddled into cars since they had no public transportation options. Let us hope those days are in the past for good.