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Nypd surveillance rules { September 26 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-nyhan262940995sep26.storyhttp://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-nyhan262940995sep26.story
http://www.newsday.com/mynews/ny-nyhan262940995sep26,0,106746.story
NYPD Seeks to Overturn Surveillance Rules
By Leonard Levitt
STAFF WRITER
September 26, 2002
The city is asking a federal court judge to lift the Police Department's two-decades-old restrictions on political surveillance, a response to last year's terrorism attack.
In asking the court to abolish virtually all restrictions on what is known as the Handschu Authority, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement that the "Handschu guidelines, as they currently exist, are the product of another era. ... Today we live in a more dangerous, constantly changing world, one with challenges and threats that were never envisioned when the Handschu guidelines were written."
Tom Doepfner, assistant deputy commissioner of the police department's Legal Bureau, said: "Our main concern is terrorism."
"Before, investigations needed a criminal predicate, or suspicion of criminal activity" but today, he said, "terrorists often don't do anything illegal for a long period of time."
The Handschu guidelines, which require that the department first obtain approval from a three-member commission before investigating a person or a group's political activity, stem from a 1971 suit filed by 16 plaintiffs, one of whom was Barbara Handschu. The suit charged the department had violated their civil rights with unlawful surveillance.
The consent degree was approved in 1985 by federal Judge Charles Haight, the same judge before whom the city is now seeking to modify the Handschu restrictions. The decree resulted in the establishment of the three-man commission, two of whose members include the Police Department's first deputy and the deputy commissioner of legal matters. The third member is appointed by the mayor.
The department is seeking to retain the Handschu Authority, which would have only oversight authority and could, Doepfner said, "respond to complaints after the fact."
Under the guidelines, only one unit, the Public Security section of the Intelligence Division could conduct political surveillance. That, too, may change, Doepfner said.
In his statement, Kelly said the NYPD "is the only police agency in the nation working under these court-imposed restrictions, which go far beyond what the Constitution requires."
Doepfner said one of the changes the NYPD is seeking to institute would facilitate its sharing information with other law enforcement agencies.
New York Civil Liberties Union associate legal director Christopher Dunn called the city's move "a stunning development."
"They are seeking to modify the consent decree, in effect to gut what are already lax standards. It appears that the city wants to start engaging in political surveillance without any evidence of unlawful activity," he said.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.
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