That's the recommendation a three-judge panel will offer Mayor
Wellington Webb today in response to the ongoing uproar over DPD's
intelligence files on noncriminal protesters.

The panel also wrote in its report that the 208 groups and 3,277
people who are in the computerized files should get to see the
information on them but only if they call the police department
within a 60-day period.

The panel said most of the problems stem from a lack of computer
training for detectives who entered the information into a
criminal intelligence database.

"There is no indication that any of the information was retained
intentionally to harm someone or to inhibit the exercise of First
Amendment-protected activities, and there is no indication that
anyone has been harmed by the police department's collection of
such information," the panel wrote.

But Mark Silverstein, legal director for the American Civil
Liberties Union, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the
subjects of the files, disagreed.

"These files are the documentation of a major case of police
misconduct," he said. "They are the documentation of what can
happen when there are not effective procedures for police
accountability."

Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman declined to discuss the
specifics of the report, saying he only had seen a draft copy of
the executive summary.

Activists Stephen and Vicki Nash, members of Copwatch and subjects
of a file, called the report "a whitewash."

"I don't buy the proposition that somehow this was a data-entry
mistake. A computer didn't send those officers out to make reports
on me," Stephen Nash said.

Webb spokesman Andrew Hudson said the mayor wouldn't comment on
the report until after speaking with the panel today. Webb may
accept its recommendations in whole or in part, he said.

The judges, who were appointed by Webb in March, are Jean E.
Dubofsky, former Colorado Supreme Court justice, and Roger
Cisneros and William G. Meyer, both former Denver District Court
judges.

Protesters' files became part of a central criminal intelligence
database "as a result of transferring information from a Rolodex
to a sophisticated computer program," in 2000, the report said.

According to the judges, detectives didn't get the proper training
or assistance because of a lack of funding. As a result,
protesters with no criminal records became intermingled with other
categories, such as people who have threatened visiting
dignitaries or "mental cases," the report said.

After the files are destroyed, only people thought to be engaged
in "current criminal activity" should be re-entered into the
database, the report said. The information should be regularly
reviewed, the panel recommended.


www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15
_1244047,00.html


>>Webb spokesman Andrew Hudson said the mayor wouldn't comment on
the report until after speaking with the panel today. Webb may
accept its recommendations in whole or in part, he said. <<
Imagine a judge deciding someone is guilty, and the accused just
saying s/he "may accept the recommendations in whole or in
part"!!!
Viviane