By Mark O’Brien
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Civil rights groups criticized the Boston Police Department this week for secret surveillance of activists who are not criminal suspects.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the National Lawyers Guild of Massachusetts called on the department to stop illegally spying on anti-war groups that have no affiliation with crime or terror.

“This kind of monitoring of political groups is just the kind of subtle interference that threatens to chill legitimate constitutionally protected speech,” the groups said in a letter to Police Commissioner Edward Davis.  “When police surveillance penetrates the internal workings of peaceful organizations, some Bostonians will be less likely to exercise those fundamental rights.”

By Wednesday, the police department issued a statement in response, saying that routine monitoring is not their practice.  But the department admitted that a computer glitch saved some intelligence reports unrelated to crime for longer than they should have been.

“Boston residents should confidently participate in any lawful, peaceful protest or demonstration knowing the Boston Police Department is not monitoring the events without specific information on suspected criminal activity,” the police statement read in part.

Police officials said the computer software problem was fixed last year, but not before 11 intelligence reports were saved for too long.

The civil rights groups sued the department last year.  They said that resulted in materials that showed police officials tracked and kept records on peaceful groups.

Now the groups are calling on Police Commissioner Edward Davis to create an independent auditing system to identify incoming surveillance reports on expressive activity, determine whether they are crime related, and purge anything unrelated to crime within three months.

But that might be too late for protesters named in the reports.  According to the Boston Globe, they were outraged but not surprised to learn that police documented their connections to protest groups.

“It’s appalling,” Susan Barney said in an interview with the Boston Globe.  She was a political activist listed in two reports.

“Money is being spent to harass, spy on, and surveil (sic) the public, instead of being used for education or housing for low-income communities,” she said.

“I don’t like being considered a homeland security threat,” Ridgely Fuller told the Boston Globe.  “I’m like this middle-aged suburban woman who just wants to speak out against injustice and war.”

The police intelligence reports detail how various Boston activist groups operate and who is involved.  Some even go in-depth about some groups’ views on politics and elections.

Civil rights groups said this violates federal regulations.

For further information, please see:

The Boston Globe — Boston Police Accused of Spying on Antiwar Groups — 18 October 2012

The Boston Herald — Civil Rights Groups Criticize Boston Police Department Surveillance — 18 October 2012

New England Cable News — Boston PD Accused of Spying on Anti-War Groups — 18 October 2012

WHDH-TV — Hank Investigates: Secret Police Files — 17 October 2012