The debate over the San Francisco Police Department’s participation in the regional Joint Terrorism Task Force has slogged on for months after the American Civil Liberties Union revealed the agreement governing SFPD’s involvement in the anti-terror program disregarded long-standing LOCAL restrictions on police intelligence gathering and surveillance.
At a joint Human Rights/Police Commission meeting in May, dozens of local Muslims and civil libertarians called on the Police Commission to pull out of the controversial memorandum of understanding between the city and the FBI. The MOU was approved in March 2007 by then-Police Chief Heather Fong without the knowledge of the Police Commission, which is responsible for such policy decisions.
The ACLU and the Asian Law Caucus have urged San Francisco to follow the lead of Portland, Oregon, which pulled its police department out of the regional JTTF over concerns about over-broad homeland security investigations. In May, Portland entered into an agreement with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for Oregon to allow local police to participate in the JTTF on an “as-needed” basis.
SFPD Commander Michael Biel, who is in charge of the Investigations division, contacted the Portland City Attorney and the FBI’s Portland office to learn more about the state of affairs with Portland’s new joint resolution. At last night’s Police Commission hearing, Biel reported that under the new agreement, Portland Police officers did not have top-secret clearance nor access to regional, national or international intelligence received by the JTTF. Continue reading →
