The Chicago police agree to stop spying on citizens who have not committed any crimes.
The police department’s notorious Red Squad had spied on, infiltrated and harassed political groups in violation of the First Amendment. A now-dissolved 1982 consent decree that reined in police spying required the city to audit compliance and publicly disclose investigative targets.
On Tuesday, the city agreed to settle a claim filed jointly by the Quaker group and the American Civil Liberties Union that accused the police department of overstepping its bounds in a way that damaged the reputation of a group with no history of violence.
Under the agreement, the city agreed to pay $7,500 to the ACLU and $5,000 to the AFSC. The Daley administration also acknowledged that its 2002 investigation “revealed no evidence that the AFSC ... had engaged in any conduct constituting a threat to public safety ... or a violation of any criminal law.”
“This is the fall-out from no longer having a spy suit consent decree in place. Without reasonable guidelines on the collection of intelligence information, the city is free to investigate the activities of law-abiding organizations,” said ACLU legal director Harvey Grossman.
“Under the old standards, they would have needed reasonable suspicion that AFSC was involved in some sort of criminal activity. Under the present guidelines, they only need a ‘legitimate law enforcement purpose.’ That could be just about anything.”
Grossman urged Emanuel and his soon-to-be-appointed police superintendent to put “reasonable suspicion guidelines” back in place to prevent police surveillance from encroaching once again on “protected First Amendment activity.”
Link:
http://www.suntimes.com/5038595-417/aclu-wants-to-rein-in-spying-on-citizens-by-chicago-police-dept.