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Night of the Living Red Squad Files: How Police Share Information
by Mitzi Waltz
Night of the Living Red Squad Files: Portland police share files with dozens of other agencies, making removal of illegal or false data nearly impossible
By Mitzi Waltz
Image for a moment that Pat Buchanan is elected President of the
United States later this year. It could happen. And imagine further
that when he takes office, President Buchanan decides to round up
all the commies and pinkos in the country and ship them off to "re-
education camps," an idea that he has favored in at least one public
speech. Where would he find their names? As revealed in the last
issue of PDXS, when it came time to grab Portland's thought
criminals Buchanan could just call up the Portland Police Bureau
and ask to see the files maintained by its Criminal Intelligence
Division (CID). Local activist Douglas Squirrel learned that his
name is mentioned in at least six files maintained by CID when he
sued the City of Portland for spying on him (see "Douglas Squirrel
Busts the Cops," PDXS, January 29, 1996), along with the names,
license plate numbers, addresses and political affiliations of many
others.
Few political activists or civil right advocates were surprised by the
revelations that came out of Squirrel's December 1995 case -
although many were disturbed to learn of the extent and scope of
the files that came to light. At the end of the trial Multnomah
County Circuit Court Judge Michael Marcus upheld the right of
citizens to bring such lawsuits, and he demanded that CID destroy
some information about Squirrel and others that should not have
been included in its files. That's a step in the right direction.
There's just one problem: according to testimony by Portland
Police Officer Greg Kurath and others, CID shares the data it
gathers about political groups and activists with other law
enforcement agencies. In Squirrel's case, CID provided information
about him to the Oregon State Police and the Secret Service. In
other words, even if Portland's CID is forced to shred illegal
documents, the same reports may well be stored in the files or
databases of these other agencies, and can be used for purposes fair
or foul.
Blue databases.
Law enforcement has certainly gone database-happy in recent years.
The Portland Police Bureau refused to honor an Open Records Act
request from PDXS for information about its data-sharing
practices, but some neighboring law enforcement agencies were
more than willing to boast about their leap into modern computing.
"We participate in so many things," said Lt. Bernie Giusto, public
information officer for the Oregon State Police. "For instance, we
have what's called the Gang Resource Information Project that's
housed at the state police, where we accumulate criminal gang
information and share it with agencies in this state and agencies in
Washington. We participate in a database for business computer
fraud and general business frauds where the information is shared
with us by the private sector. Within the state police we house all
the criminal history information in the state - anybody who has ever
been arrested, convicted or incarcerated - and we make this
database [the Law Enforcement Data System, or LEDS] available to
all criminal justice agencies in the state of Oregon. We have one of
the most state-of-the-art DNA labs in the nation. We also have
access to AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Intelligence System, so
we can check fingerprints in seconds. And we have a DNA
databank, where we now have thousands of samples on file." The
OSP can also access a ballistics database called Bulletproof that
includes detailed histories of rounds retrieved at crime scenes,
including striation patterns and caliber. "That one allows us to
follow the history of a firearm," Giusto explained. AFIS,
incidentally, is maintained by the FBI, which has announced plans
to add digital mug shots and descriptions to its offerings within two
years.
Here in Portland, the PPB's regular crime files are stored
electronically in the Portland Police Data System, of which CID
files are believed to be a subset. Both the PPB and OSP certainly
share files with the National Computer Crime Information Federal
data clearinghouse, which contains more than 23 million records
that identify people and vehicles sought by law enforcement
agencies. Some PPB documents obtained by PDXS also mention
sharing information with the Regional Organized Crime Network
(ROCN), which is involved with narcotics and other investigations,
as well as a database called the Western States Information
Network. The Bureau is also believed to share CID information and
make contacts in other departments via the Northwest Criminal
Intelligence Network (NWCIN). Seattle officer Mike Ramsby
described NWCIN as "a network of investigators up and down the
west coast and Pacific Northwest, including Canada, Washington
and Oregon, and other states. They deal in criminal intelligence
work."
Ramsby said NWCIN does not maintain a database of its own, but
holds regular meetings where CID types can meet and discuss cases
and investigative tools. The Portland Police Bureau refused to
comment about its relationship with NWCIN.
Dangerous data.
Why would someone care that files about his or her political
activities are floating around somewhere just out of reach? There
are plenty of good reasons. To start with, having a mention of
yourself in any police file gives the impression that you might be
involved with criminals or criminal activity, even if that's not the
case.
Second, if the files released in Squirrel's case are at all
representative, the intelligence gathered by our local police is of
extremely poor quality. Names are wrong, affiliations are mistaken,
and both hearsay and outright fiction are reported as fact. That's
probably unavoidable when the police must rely on informants -
especially when those informants are working for money (no juicy
tidbits = no cash), or have signed on because they oppose the
philosophy of the group in question, in which case digging up or
even creating dirt is part of a personal crusade to stop the
organization from succeeding.
Database accuracy is an issue that dogs even the top cops. For
example, a 1985 FBI study found that "at least 12,000 invalid or
inaccurate reports on suspects wanted for arrest are transmitted
each day to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies."
Regardless, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Arizona vs. Evans last
year that arrests made and evidence gathered as a result of database
errors are still admissible in court.
Third, police spying can force its targets to withdraw from political
activity, simply because their presence might draw the police. "It
happens quite frequently that I don't put myself forward as the
spokesperson, or don't even get involved in certain organizations or
actions, particularly with Portland Peaceworks, because I believe it
will draw this sort of surveillance," said Douglas Squirrel,
acknowledging that it affects how other activists perceive him as
well. "It's like a scarlet letter branded on your forehead, having
people know that if I go somewhere that's a reason for the police to
investigate that meeting."
Dan Handelman of the People Overseeing Police Study Group, a
project of Portland Peaceworks, agreed. "Even if it doesn't stop you
from organizing, if you get arrested like Squirrel did and they drag
out this long list of files, it can mean higher bail or more time in
jail - even though the quality of their intelligence is really poor,"
says. "They can say anything in there." Handelman also testified at
the trial, and Peaceworks was one of many groups whose names
appeared in the files released.
Finally, political information in the hands of ideologues and
demagogues can be used to hurt - or even kill. Several years ago,
the American Civil Liberties Union represented the Socialist
Workers Party in a lawsuit against the City of Portland. Like
Squirrel, the SWP alleged that the Portland Police Bureau had
been spying on its members. The suit was dismissed when CID
claimed to have destroyed its SWP files before they were
subpoenaed. But, before the suit was thrown out, the SWP alleged
that police snooping cost some members their jobs and homes when
employers or landlords were interviewed. And in the past, activists
in U.S. cities, including Chicago, Oakland and New York, have
actually been murdered by persons acting on the basis of
information originally collected by cops.
Portland's Red Squad history.
Is the thought of right-wing stormtroopers tracking down suspected
"commies and pinkos" too absurd to imagine? Think again. It's
happened before - not just in Nazi Germany, but right here in
Portland.
Elderly members of the International Workers of the World, the
anarchist labor union better known as the Wobblies, once told tales
of how the local "Red Squad," then operating from a secret office in
the downtown train station, would grab Wobblies as they arrived in
town and work them over. Some of these "Wobs" were later found
dead in the river.
The Bureau did its patriotic duty during World War II, helping the
Feds ferret out alleged Fifth Columnists among German-American
and Japanese-American citizens, many of whom were sent to
internment camps. In the '50s, the PPB could be relied on to toe the
McCarthyist line, and the Red Squad collected copious data on
"Communistic" and anti-war groups right up until 1974, when the
American Civil Liberties Union finally forced an agreement on it to
stop spying on non-criminal "subversives" - including the ACLU
itself. And it's a documented fact that the Federal government has
explored the possibility of setting up camps for radicals in case of
some amorphous "national emergency."
Recognizing the potential for info abuse, the Oregon State
Legislature finally tried to put the final nail in our Red Squad's
coffin. In 1981, it passed Oregon Revised Statute 181.575, which
reads, in part, that no law enforcement agency "may collect or
maintain information about the political, religious or social views,
associations or activities of any individual, group, association,
organization, corporation, business or partnership unless such
information directly relates to an investigation of criminal
activities, and there are reasonable grounds to suspect the subject
of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct."
Former ACLU Executive Director Stevie Remington drafted the
original version of that bill, and told PDXS that some subsequent
abuses have centered around the words "may be," which the police
construe liberally. "I should have put in 'are conspiring to commit a
crime'," she said regretfully.
Information wants to be free.
The 1981 Oregon Legislature never imagined how many law
enforcement agencies would establish their own databases ¥ and
how freely they would share supposedly confidential information
with one another. Douglas Squirrel was not able to learn for certain
how many agencies received information about him from
PortlandOs CID. However, based on the experiences of local
attorney Spencer Neal, it's possible that CID shared information on
Squirrel with literally dozens of local, state and federal law
enforcement agencies.
Neal first became concerned about these databases in the late
1980s. At that time, he was representing four people in separate
lawsuits against the Portland Police Bureau. Neal's clients had been
labeled as "gang members" by the police, and their names had been
put on the "gang list" maintained by the BureauOs Gang
Enforcement Team (GET). This is not a fun list to be on. If the
words "gang affiliate" pop up when a cop runs a routine license-
plate check, getting pulled over for a traffic ticket can be a nasty
business, complete with unholstered weapons and shouted
commands. Neal said his clients - three African-Americans with no
gang affiliations whatsoever and one young man who was merely a
member of a graffiti crew called the Art Fiendz - were harassed and
intimidated by police officers as a result of appearing on the list.
So Neal sued the City of Portland to force the Bureau to delete his
clients' names from its gang list. Along the way, he discovered that
their names had been shared with a wide range of other law
enforcement agencies. "There were at least a dozen," Neal said,
"including all local law enforcement agencies, the Portland School
Police, the Sheriff's Office, the Department of Corrections, the
Oregon State Police, parole and probation offices, you name it. It
gets pretty loose out there."
Worse yet, Neal has still not been able to purge his clients' names
from any of the lists, even though he won their cases. As a result of
a settlement with the Portland Police Bureau, the City of Portland
has agreed to set up a process to notify everyone currently on its
"gang list," and to give those named a chance to challenge their
listing if it isnOt true. But, years after the settlement, the City
Attorney's Office has not yet established the procedure, although
documents obtained by PDXS show that it has evidently grasped
the serious possibility that not doing so soon (and doing so in a
manner that satisfies minority community concerns) could result in
a blizzard of costly lawsuits for defamation, emotional distress,
discrimination or other harm. Perhaps the furor touched off in
Denver, Colo., when civil rights leaders found out in 1993 that two
out of three young Black men in town were listed in that cityOs
roster of suspected gang members struck a chord in Portland. In any
case, the most current memos from the city indicate that it is
involving the Urban League of Portland and the Office of
Neighborhood Associations in its effort to come up with an
equitable solution.
But even if the city finally succeeds in doing so, it's unlikely that
other agencies it shares files with will follow suit, with the possible
exception of the Oregon State Police - and its solution for gang
members may not apply to politicals. The OSP's Giusto told PDXS
that when PPB informs it that a file has been dropped from its
records, the OSP follows suit by purging any corresponding files
from its database as well. He also said that OSP has a gatekeeping
procedure in place to ensure that it does not maintain any
information not related to crimes that may come in from local
agencies.
Unwanted notoriety.
The local groups mentioned in Squirrel's case were not surprised
to hear that their names made an appearance in CID's fileroom, but
will doubtless be unamused to learn that their dubious fame has
probably spread far beyond the Rose City.
"It's sad that any government agency feels that there's something to
be gained by this kind of surveillance," said John Schwiebert,
pastor of the Metanoia Peace Community church. "Still, I would
have to say it's not unexpected. While I don't think we're overly
paranoid, some of us sort of imagine that what we do doesn't go
unnoticed by people that are operating from a reactionary position."
A spokesperson for the Women's International League for Peace
and Freedom (who declined to be named for this article) agreed.
"We've been 'on the list' for 50 years," she said. "Some people are
very superior about it, but I see it as a threat. If they have lists of
names of members, I see that as a serious problem."
Some groups and individuals mentioned in the Squirrel vs. City of
Portland files are considering the possibility of a class-action
lawsuit, although none had announced definite plans to do so at
press time. Others may pursue complaints to the state Human
Rights Commission, which could eventually end up at the United
Nations. Political spying violates the United Nations Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a
signatory.
"There are very few checks on abuses of this kind," conceded Dave
Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "If the police know that someone might be
able to have access to a file that would certainly be one more," he
says, praising the trial's possibilities as a local precedent.
However, he added, "it's very discouraging that this problem seems
to keep cropping up. Every time we think we have systems in place
to prevent it, they find a new way." And with the proliferation of
databases and few controls on the information in them, your
privacy ¥ not to mention your reputation; your freedoms of speech,
thought and association; and perhaps even your life ¥ could be in
serious danger if you are politically active.
Rules for Radicals, Portland Style
The ruling in Squirrel vs. City of Portland established some new
"rules for radicals," to steal a phrase from famous organizer Saul
Alinsky. If you are involved in political activity, and particularly if
your actions include civil disobedience or direct action, you need to
be aware of these restrictions and measures.
1.If you help to organize a demonstration and a few people who
attend commit illegal activity, you may be held responsible for their
activity by the Portland Police.
2.Actions held by the Portland
Police to constitute "organizing" a demonstration include making a
flyer or telling others that it may occur.
3.Arranging for first-aid or
legal resources in advance of a demonstration is held by the
Portland Police to constitute approval of illegal activities. This, of
course, does not apply to organizers of non-political gatherings,
such as ArtQuake or Little League tournaments.
4.Since Portland Police informants regularly attend all public political
meetings and many that are ostensibly private, activists can never assume
privacy when making decisions together or debating issues. Nor can they
necessarily trust supposed members of their organizations.
5.If any person at a political meeting advocates violence, or even civil
disobedience actions such as sit-ins, every person at that meeting
can receive a notation in their CID file that they have "attended a
meeting where violence or criminal activity was advocated" - even if
they spoke up to oppose it, even if the advocate was a police,
Federal or private intelligence agent. The police can then legally
gather information about all persons or groups in attendance.
6.The Portland Police regularly share information with other city, state
and Federal police agencies about activists. Since different
agencies have different rules about what may and may not be kept,
even if the PPD destroys its file on an activist the same information
may continue to exist elsewhere. It can also be assumed that much
of this information is available to private intelligence operations,
over which there is no control whatsoever.
[Originally published by PDXS, Portland OR, February 9-22, 1996]
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