by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe

Univ. Wisconsin study links to Journal of Chinese Governance

Residents of Sacramento seemed to be particularly enthusiastic about snitching on water wasters, according to a recent study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The Sacramento Bee published an article last week encouraging Sacramento residents to rat-out neighbors for “wasting” water on landscape, swimming pools and other suburban water uses, and referenced the study.

The article, “Is your neighbor wasting water? Snitching on them may ease California drought, study says,” referenced the study by La Follette School Associate Professor Manny Teodoro, Public Water Waste Reporting: Contextual Correlates and Conservation Outcomes, published in Water Resources Research, and examines the effectiveness of “California’s participatory surveillance programs,” such as Save our Water.

“California’s participatory surveillance programs” is bureaucrat-totalitarian-speak for snitching on your neighbors. While California politicians and water officials have long supported water snitches, this is the first time we’ve seen a study supporting the idea, and curiously, an out-of-state university study.

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