-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/wtoo07m_20000407.html Friday, April 7, 2000, 04:53 p.m. Pacific Police target law limiting surveillance by Mike Carter Seattle Times staff reporter The Seattle Police Department, with the support of Mayor Paul Schell, wants to streamline - and perhaps repeal - a law that limits when and how police can gather information on organizations and individuals. The impetus behind the decision to review the city's unique intelligence law is last fall's World Trade Organization conference. In its self-critical analysis, released this week, the department claims the law "created significant problems" for WTO security planners and later "delayed the gathering and sharing" of intelligence information about anarchists and protesters. "The SPD Criminal Intelligence Section contributed little hard intelligence because of our inability to investigate any of the individuals or groups that ultimately did the most damage," the report says. But the civilian auditor who oversees the department's compliance with the law sees no reason it should have hampered police during the WTO conference. And civil libertarians believe the Seattle Police Department is using the WTO as a red herring to attack the law. "This is an attempt to roll back an important protection for the citizens of Seattle using the problems of WTO as a cover," said Doug Honig, the education director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. That's not so, says Leo Poort, the Police Department's legal adviser who helped draft the law in 1979. The statute, he said, is unwieldy in today's high-tech society, where information about possibly subversive groups is readily available to police. Moreover, he said, few people understand how the law works and how it frightens other agencies into being reluctant to share information with the Police Department. The ordinance was passed after a public outcry over police keeping political files on citizens and groups involved here in the political activism of the 1960s and '70s. It prohibits gathering any information - outside of a criminal investigation - on anyone exercising free-speech rights or solely because of someone's political or religious beliefs. Penalties for breaking the law are substantial - up to $1,000 per violation. Before police can gather information on anyone the law protects, they must have a "reasonable suspicion" that a person or group has or will commit a crime. Someone of the rank of captain or above must approve an investigation. The ordinance calls for a review of any approved investigation by a civilian auditor who - if he finds police broke the law - must inform the targets of surveillance that their rights may have been violated. Poort says the process is cumbersome and impedes the department's ability to react quickly to possible threats. "It's time to take a look at that ordinance," he said. "We're the only city in the country that requires our department to do this. ... It's a hindrance." Poort believes the intelligence-gathering concern can better be handled through internal policies and suggests the law be removed from the books. At the same time, though, the department admitted that it brushed aside information from other agencies warning of anarchists and others traveling to Seattle with the intent of disrupting the WTO ministerial. Schell, at a news conference Tuesday, expressed a willingness to look at changing the ordinance. And City Council President Margaret Pageler said yesterday she'll look at it, too. "Maybe that needs to be updated because it's a whole new age," she said. Any group can label itself as a religion, thereby falling under the ordinance's ban on police surveillance of religious groups, she said. But attorney Jeff Robinson, the auditor appointed by the mayor to oversee police compliance with the law, said that anyone who believes the statute prevents - or even substantially hinders - police from gathering information simply hasn't read it. All the department needs to do, he said, is conclude that there is a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and it can open an investigation file - regardless of the subject's religious or political affiliations. "I refer you to the very first section of the ordinance," Robinson said. "I'll quote it: `This ordinance is not intended to protect criminal activity.' "You can't hide behind the veil of politics or religious belief," he said. "If they had intelligence that what these people were planning involved criminal acts, they had every freedom to gather information." The department has had a difficult time with the ordinance. Three times in the past three years, the auditor has found the department violated the spirit - if not the letter - of the ordinance. Mike Carter's phone message number is 206-464-3706. Copyright � 2000 The Seattle Times Company -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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