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Terrorism Liaison Officers Have Broad Definition Of Suspicious Acts

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics, and even

utility workers have been trained and recently

dispatched as 'Terrorism Liaison Officers' in

Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt

for  'suspicious activity' - and are reporting their

findings into secret government databases, reports

the Denver Post. It's a tactic intended to feed better

data into terrorism early-warning systems and

uncover intelligence that could help fight anti-U.S.

forces. The vague nature of the TLOs' mission, and

their focus on reporting both legal and illegal activity,

has generated objections from privacy advocates and

civil libertarians.

'Suspicious activity'  is broadly defined, including

taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value, making

measurements or notes, espousing extremist beliefs,

or conversing in code, according to a draft Department

of Justice/Major Cities Chiefs Association document.

Civil libertarians warn of threats to privacy. 'The

problem is, you're drafting individuals whose job isn't

law enforcement to spy on ordinary Americans and

report their activities to the government,' said John

Verdi of the open-government project at the Electronic

Privacy Information Center."

Denver Post - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0013VzDKrBMjCzR1HjPEdekhKLnW0WYoYhzXPvylLHH_ACfPoQuI4PTh2HISYMJP5Hu92M-Uo2-ICIwmcJOcOhL8RHdQ01HCZEvrXkLKSJ2VkHV3CiAWqXwWwl9-jFD5z9frNGLWayDcliYcsTe-Bgnlg==

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on July 03, 2008 (boomark / email).