Sheridan "is having those documents researched and looked at," said his spokesman, Gregory Shipley, referring to the state police's policies, procedures and training programs for intelligence-gathering and the use of federal anti-drug and anti-terrorism databases.
After learning last week about the 14-month infiltration and surveillance program, which took place in 2005 and 2006 under his predecessor, Sheridan asked, "What do we have (in the way of policies)? … What's going on now?" Shipley told United Press International.
He said Sheridan wanted to "ensure that the policies are in compliance, certainly with state and federal law, but also with the policies of the current superintendent and the current governor."
Federal regulations govern the use of U.S.-funded technology, such as the anti-drug and anti-terror database into which at least one protester was entered as a result of the surveillance.
Shipley said current intelligence operations also were being looked at, to ensure no operations were "going on that don't have a nexus to criminal activity."
"We have said this (kind of surveillance) isn't happening now, and it's not," he said, adding the review was "to make sure there are no misunderstandings."
He said the work was being done by command staff in the state police's Homeland Security and Investigations Bureau, under their new chief, Lt. Col Stewart Russell, but he did not know how long it would take or in what form the results might be reported back to Sheridan.
He added the personnel involved in the original infiltration operation had all moved on. "The people who were in command and involved are either no longer with the department or no longer in those (intelligence) assignments," he said.
Among the issues being looked at on Sheridan's orders are the procedures the state police use in entering information into a federally funded computer system known as the High-Intensity Drug-Trafficking Area database.
The name of at least one activist associated with the anti-war and anti-death-penalty groups under surveillance was entered into the HIDTA database.
The entries for Max Obuszewski listed his "Primary Crime" as "Terrorism -- Anti Govern(ment)" and his "Secondary Crime" as "Terrorism -- Anti-War Protesters."
Federal regulations governing such databases state that agencies "shall not collect or maintain criminal intelligence information about the political, religious or social views, associations, or activities of any individual or any group … unless such information directly relates to criminal conduct or activity."
But several dozen pages of intelligence reports, including printouts from the HIDTA database, obtained under Maryland's Public Information Law by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, documenting 288 hours of surveillance, show no evidence of any violent or illegal activity, or any planning for it -- although there are references to a proposed sit-in at the offices of Baltimore County State's Attorney Sandra O'Connor. Indeed, organizers are repeatedly reported as stressing the importance of demonstrations being peaceful and orderly.
Thomas Carr, director of HIDTA, told UPI it was the responsibility of the agencies making entries in the database to ensure they were in compliance with the regulations.
He said when users from any of the 134 local and state police agencies with access to the system logged on or submitted an entry, pop-up windows warned them that data had to be in compliance with the relevant federal regulation, 28 CFR Part 23.
"The agencies have to make a determination as to whether the data they are submitting" comply with the regulation, he said.
David Rocah, staff attorney for the Maryland ACLU, derided that as "buck-passing."
"If they are not policing this, how do we ensure we don't get any more problems?" he said. "That is why we need a robust state law."
He said the impact such data entries might have on the people named "are being multiplied by these database aggregators, these (federally supported state and local intelligence and homeland security) fusion centers."
Although the state's own fusion operation, the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, by design does not maintain its own databases, documents on its Web site show it has access to HIDTA.
"Now, any law enforcement agency in the country that calls the fusion center can learn that Mr. Obuszewski is listed as a terrorist," said Rocah.
The national network of intelligence and homeland security fusion centers across the country is financially supported by the Department of Homeland Security. The centers bring together state and local public safety agencies like police forces with federal law enforcement personnel and representatives of U.S. intelligence agencies. They typically have access to a wide range of federal and state databases, and are part of the Information Sharing Environment created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to ensure agencies are "connecting the dots" about possible terrorists and other threats.
But the centers have proved a lightning rod for critics concerned that the expanding use by local agencies of intelligence-gathering creates the potential for abuse -- like the surveillance of peaceful protesters carried out in Maryland.
Mike German, a veteran FBI counter-terrorism investigator who now works for the ACLU's Washington office, said the federal government was pushing state and local agencies to do more and more open-ended intelligence-gathering, effectively encouraging them to ignore the criminal nexus required by 28 CFR Part 23.
"This kind of behavior (by state troopers in Maryland) is the natural product of that pressure," he told UPI.
John Cohen, a spokesman for the program manager of the Information Sharing Environment, told UPI they were working "very closely with state and local partners to develop multiple layers of review and safeguards" for data put into the ISE, a virtual network that allows the fusion centers and other entities to share information.
"We know that if the public is not confident this is being done in a way that protects their constitutional rights, we will not get their support," he said.
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