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City Renews FBI-Police "Joint Terrorism Task Force" After Considerable Community Opposition In mid-October, a majority vote by City Council renewed the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force (PJTTF) for another year ending September 2002. The PJTTF includes eight Portland Police and a dozen or so other law enforcement agents, mostly FBI. Its mission is to "identify and target for prosecution those responsible for acts of criminal terrorism." Copwatch stumbled upon the PJTTF last November, when Council tried to formalize it without public discussion (see PPR #23). Since then, the activist community raised a hue and cry that led an FBI spokesperson to comment that "only in Portland has there been such an uproar about it" (Willamette Week, September 12). That may be because even in cities which have such task forces, very few people know about them. That may change, since the Federal government mandated the formation of terrorism task forces in all 50 states after September 11. The October 17 hearing marked the fourth consecutive week that the PJTTF's proposed renewal came before Council, starting with its introduction as an "emergency ordinance" on September 26. The September hearing began with a half-hour slide show presentation by Chief Kroeker and the Lieutenant in charge of the PJTTF, Randy Kane. Their presentation featured quotes from business people, two of whom refused to be identified, for fear of reprisal. To justify the Task Force, Kroeker and Kane listed six incidents of so-called terrorism that occurred outside of Portland, three attempted bombings that had been thwarted by other JTTFs in Yakima, Sacramento and Seattle, and a bank robbery--which would not, on its face, fit the definition of terrorism--thwarted in Portland in 1996, one year prior to the PJTTF's creation. A panel of about eight "invited speakers" talked about how great the PJTTF is. These folks included the national director of security for Planned Parenthood, who was apparently flown in to speak. A researcher from OHSU described how animal rights "extremists" confronted him, called him names, and wore T-shirts (!), causing him to enlist the aid of a bodyguard. The Mayor permitted a panel of five people from the "opposition" to testify prior to other community members, nearly all of whom also opposed the task force. Prior to the September 11 attacks, 21 labor unions and several community groups wrote resolutions opposing the PJTTF and sent them to Council. While some of those groups shied away from testifying in the post-World Trade Center climate, quite a few--including the ACLU, NAACP, League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women, and the Japanese American Citizens League--spoke up for civil rights. A former abortion clinic worker also testified to help refute prior claims that the PJTTF is necessary to protect such clinics. Other "opponents," including the ILWU Local 5, VOZ workers' rights education project, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Multnomah Meeting of Friends, and the Sabin Neighborhood Association called for civilian oversight and/or abolishment of the task force. Testimony highlighted past and current civil rights abuses by the FBI, the internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, and the PJTTF's interference with Portland union organizing activity (see PPR #24). Although the hearing went on for over three hours, there was not enough time for all of those who had signed up to speak, and so Council postponed the vote to the following week. On October 3, the City Attorney and the Mayor's office provided answers to questions raised during the first hearing. Most significantly, their answers revealed that civilian oversight for the FBI is prohibited, although it is unclear if there is any legal basis for that restriction. While several members of Council seemed adamant that any "intelligence" gathered on Portland citizens needs oversight, most seemed willing to risk the dangers of letting the PJTTF operate without an independent review mechanism in place. It is profoundly disturbing that the Council would abdicate its ability to review the work of eight police officers by allowing them to officially link with the FBI.
The Mayor recognized that several years ago, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Michael Marcus ordered the City to review the files generated by the Portland Police Bureau's Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU)-- whose members are now the Portland officers assigned to the PJTTF. Marcus' order was based on the CIU's violations of Oregon state law ORS 181.575 which requires reasonable suspicion of criminal activity before a file can be kept on an individual or group (see PPR #10). Mayor Katz announced that she (through the City Attorney's office) had reviewed all twelve of the Task Force's files generated between January 2000 and August 2001. Since the FBI's files cannot be reviewed by external oversight (including the Mayor), those files were most likely generated by the CIU acting outside of their roles as deputized federal agents for the Task Force. Guidelines for differentiating between CIU cases and PJTTF cases were not given, yet FBI guidelines allow the opening of case files on mere allegations of criminal activity. Therefore, it's possible that the CIU acts in accord with Oregon law when files are stored with the Police Bureau, but hands over to the FBI any information collected in violation of that law. Without oversight, there is no way to know what is actually happening. When the vote came up, Commissioner Hales aptly pointed out that we need to fight terrorism, but, he said, a permanent task force is not the best way to do it. The police can cooperate with the FBI when a real threat occurs. Hales cast the lone "no" vote, thwarting the emergency ordinance, which required a unanimous vote. The activist community enjoyed a short-lived victory for civil rights as the Mayor scrambled to put the ordinance on the October 10 agenda for its first reading as a non- emergency measure. During the new ordinance's second and final reading on the 17th, Commissioner Hales again took a brave stance with the only "no" vote. He went into a lengthy explanation that included his concern about an "erosion of community policing" since the early 1990s, that led to the use of numerous specialized task forces with special tools like the Rapid Response Team, the Auto Theft Task force, etc. Hales stated that the PJTTF was just one more case of specialized assignments dealing with the "threat of the month." Hales raised another issue: "What do we do when eight is not enough--when we have a significant problem, how do these eight officers work with everybody else?" The Mayor, livid at Hales' explanation, stated, "Many times eight is not enough, and we do, in fact, bring in as many officers as we need to make sure that we have enough protection for both the demonstrators and the public, so it's far more than eight when necessary." (An interesting comment considering that the issue on the floor was supposedly terrorism, not demonstrations.) Commissioner Saltzman tried to refute various testimonies prior to his "yes" vote. In response to a charge that pitting the abortion rights folks against other members of the community was unconscionable, Saltzman stated that the Council didn't orchestrate the pro-choice panel that spoke on September 26th. (At that hearing, it was clearly stated that the "pro" side were people who had been invited to testify, so it must have been the police who invited them.) Commissioner Sten said that he and the Mayor supported third-party oversight of at least the CIU portion of the task force and that the oversight would most likely come from the new "Independent" Police Review Division (IPR), not the City Attorney (who would represent the City if one of the files existed in violation of Oregon law). Although the IPR is limited by its structure and lack of true independence (see article, in this issue), this may be a viable first step at cracking open the PJTTF's files. In conclusion, the PJTTF was technically delayed until November 16 since non-emergency ordinances go into effect 30 days after passing. We hope that people in other cities will take a stand and put their local governments and police on notice that civil rights violations will not be tolerated. For more information, see following article on San Francisco's JTTF, visit our website at www.portlandcopwatch.org or call Copwatch at 503-236-3065.
San Francisco Police Barred From Local Joint Terrorism Task Force During the formation of the San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force (SFJTTF) in 1997, several activists, community groups, and SF Mayor Willie Brown opposed local police participation due to concerns that the officers would violate a Police Department general order regarding First Amendment activities. As a result, the local police do not participate in the SFJTTF--they can only attend its meetings. The general order mandates that intelligence cases can be opened on citizens only if there is "an articulable and reasonable suspicion to believe that they are planning or engaged in criminal activity which reasonably could be expected to result in bodily injury of [sic] property damage in excess of $2500 or which constitutes a felony or misdemeanor hate crime and the First Amendment activities are relevant to the criminal investigation" (San Francisco Police Department General Order 8.10). The order also mandates that (a) before such a case can be opened, the police chief must approve it, and (b) that annual audits of the case files must be performed by the civilian Police Commission. The Commission assigned the audits to the chief civilian investigator of SF's independent police review board, the Office of Civilian Complaints.
In addition to the FBI, several agencies comprise the SFJTTF, including the INS, US Secret
Service, Oakland Police, Federal Aviation Administration and the US Customs Service. |
December, 2001
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Portland Copwatch Portland Copwatch is a grassroots, volunteer organization promoting police accountability through citizen action.
People's Police Report
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