[briandear]

> Along similar lines, I've wondered about how often restaurant and bar owners have bugged their own premises.

In a few select Houston strip clubs.. all the time, or at least ten years ago some did, the ones owned by certain organizations. I haven’t been around that scene for a decade, so I can’t speak to now. I know of a few other places that seemed to magically never have trouble with city officials or permitting. Another such place, an after hours club, was frequented by the mayor’s “party-oriented” daughter, never had trouble with police raids, or fire marshals. The venue survived unscathed until the next mayor took over and such leverage became unavailable. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission was the only real challenge, but often the local cops would be knowledgeable about pending raids and would graciously provide some advance notice. It certainly helped that many of those cops were paid as off duty private security by the venue. DEA was another frequent adversary, but those folks aren’t as undercover as they thought they were. I might suggest that the DEA was (or maybe still is,) one of the more sketchy law enforcement agencies in the government.

Just under the surface of “normal,” there is some really fascinating stuff that goes on.