From: [a--y--r] at [nmsu.edu] (Nosy)
Newsgroups: alt.law-enforcement,talk.politics.guns
Subject: Police Files And Abuse Thereof (Was: SSN abuse (was: Finger printing chil)
Date: 18 Jul 94 21:18:37

<>	Of COURSE they do, just as no police department has EVER
<>	kept files on "potential troublemakers" who have committed
<>	no crime, right?

<If you've been arrested and gone to court since you reached adult status, 
<you probably have a state ID number, despite the outcome of the case.  No 
<one is listed as a "potential troublemaker" however.  You cannot access 
<the NCIC and put in a crime and get a list of everyone who "might" have 
<commited that crime.

	That's a nice story. It's true, too, as far as it
	goes. But there are other stories, as well.

	Here's one.

	Starting around 1968 and continuing at least until
	1978, possibly as late as 1985, the Albuquerque Police
	Department ran its' own Intelligence operation. The
	APD kept files on anyone it chose, included in the files
	any*thing* it chose and showed them to selected other
	law enforcement bureaus...as APD chose.

	Just a few years ago, after a couple of changes in
	city government and APD management, this secret police
	operation came to light. There had been rumors for
	years that were always denied, often in much the same
	language as Hart used. Denials of illegal wiretaps,
	illegal bugs, and files kept on persons who had never
	even been *arrested* were also routine...until
	the secret police files were "discovered".

	It is to the credit of those recent managers that
	the whole thing wasn't quietly destroyed, but that
	the existence of these files was admitted.

	After an interesting court trial, the APD was losing
	its battle to keep these files away from the public.

	So the APD took their files, photographs, tape recordings
	allegedly made using illegal bugs and/or wiretaps to
	the city dump and they burned every scrap, avoiding
	any chance of a court order to divulge the material.

	I do not know if other cities PD's engaged in such
	illegal and unlawful survellance of citizens in
	the late 1960's, 1970's, and into the 1980's...but
	it certainly is not impossible.

	So please, don't tell me that police agencies in the US 
	have not kept files of "known troublemakers", or "suspected
	troublemakers" or even "known pains in the rear", because
	I have every reason to strongly suspect that at least one
	and very likely quite a few more PD's have done *exactly*
	that.

	NCIC is *NOT* the only database that has been created
	in this country by law enforcement, not by a long shot,
	and while more professional law enforcement has made 
	such illegal and unlawful activities detailed above
	much less likely, it has *NOT* made them impossible.

	Those who wish to check on me can contact the Albuquerque
	Journal, who covered the whole mess extensively. 

	They may have an email address by now, probably on 
	aol.com.

	Note followups.