Political Spying

After a vigorous and spirited debate, the House approved on a 36-25 vote a bill that would have restricted state and local police from collecting or maintaining information about the political associations or activities of individuals. Unfortunately, the bill died in Senate committee without a hearing, largely due to forceful State Police opposition. The bill followed on the heels of revelations that the protests of a Providence peace group were kept in a Department of Defense “terrorism” database (see related story, page 1), and that the Providence Police Department obtained $100,000 in federal homeland security money for police officers to attend a training on how to “handle” protests and “civil actions.” The ACLU plans to resubmit the legislation in 2007.