O Say, Can You Oversee?

In the post-9.11 political climate, it's no longer a question whether the City Council will re-approve local cops' participation in the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force. The only question left is whether commissioners have the will--and the right--to stitch on a citizen panel to oversee it.

Last November, when Portland police proposed joining the FBI-led PJTTF, the task force's mission was described as identifying and prosecuting individuals responsible for "left and right wing movements." Seizing upon the ominous language, City Commissioner Charlie Hales said by that reasoning, the cops would soon be tailing members of City Council. The language of the agreement was quickly rejiggered to focus on criminal activity alone, and the council approved the resolution 5-0.

Local activists were not appeased. To their ears it sounded as though law enforcement had been given the green light to monitor constitutionally protected political activity. For the past year, they've bitched long and loud about the task force and lobbied city commissioners not to renew it in 2001. Then came Sept. 11.

"It's obvious terrorism is a real threat," says City Commissioner Erik Sten, who before the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center was expected to vote against the task force. "But there's still lots of room to talk about our police's role in fighting that."

Some of that room was evident in the packed council chambers last week. Going into a Sept. 26 hearing, it looked as though City Council would rubber-stamp the task-force participation. But critics raised enough questions to postpone the decision and give commissioners a chance to put in some safeguards.

Currently, the 4-year-old Portland task force is composed of five Portland police officers, two sergeants, one lieutenant, a Beaverton police officer, an Oregon State Police officer and an undisclosed (for security reasons) number of local FBI agents.

Even before the task force was proposed, Portland police demonstrated a willingness to target people engaged in legal political activity. In the early '90s, it was revealed that the Portland Police Bureau had maintained investigative files on liberal groups such as the Oregon ACLU and shared them with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, which regarded left-wing and anti-apartheid groups as enemies of Israel.

In 1993, activist Douglas Squirrel sued the city because police had opened a file on him. During the trial, it was disclosed that undercover cops had attended political meetings, including one organized by advocates of civilian oversight of the police.

Last year, in a subsequent lawsuit by protesters, it was revealed that following a protest of the Iraqi bombings in December 1999, a police informant filed a "criminal intelligence" report on Dan Handelman, a peace activist and member of Portland Copwatch, describing him as a "non-criminal" activist.

In April, Jerry Auvil, a representative of the local carpenters union, was contacted by a PJTTF member seeking information on a labor rally the union planned to hold in Washington County.

Given that history, many civil libertarians have wondered who is going to ensure that the task force only targets criminal activity. Mayor Vera Katz has argued that the city attorney could review the task force's files twice a year. But at the Sept. 26 hearing, activist/lawyer Alan Graf produced a February 2000 letter in which City Attorney Jeff Rodgers conceded that his office had a potential conflict of interest since it already has an attorney-client relationship with the Portland Police Bureau.

Following last week's hearing, Commissioners Sten and Jim Francesconi floated the idea of having a judge or judicial panel review PJTTF files every three months. If cops were keeping tabs on political activities, the police chief, the mayor and, possibly, the City Council would be notified. The only potential sticking point is whether such oversight is legal. Rogers is supposed to issue an opinion on the matter this week.

Whatever structure may become attached to the PJTTF should become clear Oct. 3, when City Council next tries to balance America's need to chase terrorists with citizens' rights to legal political activism.

WWeek 2015