Kennedale, Tx- It’s a form of harassment but it has worked in other communities. Pastor Jim Norwood of the Oakcrest Family Church is combating adult businesses in the area with the use of digital cameras and telephoto lenses.

The church has spent $1,500 on digital cameras with telephoto lenses to photograph license plates of vehicles parked at adult establishments off Interstate 20. The church intends to create postcards to intimidate the customers of the adult businesses. Talk about subtlety.

The postcard will also include a schedule of church services and will be sent to the cars’ owners via addresses obtained through the license plates. Norwood’s plan of attack is to take pictures all hours of the day and night. Meanwhile, Kennedale’s crackdown on adult businesses had led to pending litigation with police raiding two businesses and arresting ten people on obscenity charges. The arrests came on the heels of residents’ complaints. Norwood said the intention of his campaign is to force the businesses out of the community by embarrassing their customers who Norwood believes are addicted to pornography.

Steven Swander, a lawyer who represents one of the strip clubs, says that his clients enjoy constitutionally protected free speech and takes issue with the approached fostered by Norwood calling it a Scarlet Letter tactic. Meanwhile, Roger Albright, an ACLU attorney, said Norwood isn’t breaking any laws by taking the pictures and sending postcards, though he’d be concerned about the misuse of public information in these circumstances. So far the Kennedale City Council has been looking the other way as far as the postcard campaign’s concerned.