Pubdate: Thu, 14 Mar 2013
Source: Morning News, The (Springdale, AR)
Copyright: 2013 The Stephens Media Group
Contact:  http://www.nwaonline.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/835
Author: Aziza Musa
Page: 1B

ACLU REQUESTS DATA ON SWAT

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union joined
about two dozen other chapters Tuesday in a nationwide investigation
to measure the scope of the so-called militarization of local police.

The state chapter sent Freedom of Information requests to law
enforcement agencies statewide, including the Arkansas State Police
and the Arkansas National Guard, said Holly Dickson, the chapter's
legal director.

Beginning March 6, ACLU chapters nationwide sent out more than 250
Freedom of Information requests asking for information about SWAT
teams - including the number and purpose of deployments and how often
people are injured during deployments - and about newer weapons and
technologies a department may be using, such as drones or GPS tracking
devices. The Arkansas chapter also requested information on fusion
centers - stations where federal, state and local law enforcement
agencies share threat-related information across jurisdictional lines.

Dickson did not disclose to which agencies the state ACLU chapter sent
the requests, but said the group considered the size of the department
and public and media reports about the law enforcement agency.

"Equipping state and local law enforcement with military weapons and
vehicles, military tactical training and actual military assistance to
conduct traditional law enforcement erodes civil liberties and
encourages increasingly aggressive policing, particularly in poor
neighborhoods and communities of color," the Center for Justice senior
counsel Kara Dansky said in a news release. "We've seen examples of
this in several localities but we don't know the dimensions of the
problem."

The transition to a military-style police force has become more common
since the nation began tackling the war on drugs, Dansky said. Law
enforcement agencies in the late 1990s were given a thumbs-up to
directly obtain equipment from the military, and the movement
amplified again after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she said.

"We don't know if this blurring of the lines between military and
police is happening nationwide," Dansky said. "It's just to say, if it
is happening, it would cause concerns about civil liberties."

ACLU officials raised concern about the public losing oversight over
public safety.

"We're seeing this increased military-style policing, and what you
see on the street may be the surface layer of it all," Dickson said.
"Why was Little Rock police spying on the Occupy movement? Was that
the idea of the Police Department? These are the kinds of questions
the public doesn't know."

Little Rock police spokesman Sgt. Cassandra Davis said the department
received a Freedom of Information request and officials are beginning
to piece it together. Davis said she didn't know of specific
complaints against Special Weapons and Tactics team members, who
mostly respond to hostage-type situations or barricaded subjects. The
officers also help execute some search warrants, especially those
related to narcotics, she said.

The Little Rock Police Department does have a special intelligence
division that researches any activist group that comes into town,
Davis said. Patrol officers aren't becoming militarized, Davis said,
adding that technology is improving.

The Police Department received from the military a Skywatch tower - a
portable camera used for high-capacity events such as Riverfest - and
a SWAT all-terrain Humvee, she said.

"In some cases, the military has the technology before we're able to
get it," Davis said.

The militarization of police could cause a rift between the community
and law enforcement agencies, as residents may not feel safe going to
police, ACLU officials said.

"It's a choice that law enforcement has to make - whether they want to
have an acrimonious relationship or a cooperative relationship,"
Dickson said.

Pulaski County sheriff 's spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said he had not
heard of any overt complaints against the department's part-time SWAT
officers, who carry items similar to those of patrol deputies.

"I don't think [ the ACLU] would find much to it from our
perspective," he said. "[SWAT officers] have a little different
equipment, maybe a different variant of the rifle. They'll do drills
and tactics that your basic patrol deputy doesn't do. But on a whole,
it's why we all have them."

Little Rock's Police Department uses community oriented policing and
SWAT teams, but the officers are used for different situations, Davis
said. The community-oriented police are similar to the foot-beat cops,
she said.

"To say that they [SWAT] are moving away from the community...that's
not their purpose," Davis said, adding the department wants a good
relationship with the community. "But SWAT is for the situations that
have gone past the normal stop-and-talk."
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