See Something - Say Something?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (along with other agencies) uses the "See Something - Say Something" campaign to encourage people to report suspicious activity to their local police departments and to their state Fusion Centers. The idea is that by being alert for things that are out of place in your community, and by reporting these things to the authorities, terrorist acts and other crimes can be identified and hopefully prevented before they can be carried out.

Community involvement in crime prevention is nothing new. When people care about their communities, and work with their local law enforcement to identify and report criminal activity, we have safer neighborhoods.  

The FBI in conjunction with the Bureau of Justice Assistance produced a series of "Communities Against Terrorism" flyers containing potential of indicators terrorist activity, for distribution to specific industries. These flyers have been distributed to multiple industries and posted to numerous web-sites as examples of what you should be alert for and what you should report.

The Communities Against Terrorism flyers were produced and distributed to the following groups and in the following categories:  Airport Service Providers - Beauty/Drug Suppliers - Bulk Fuel Distributors - Construction Sites - Dive/Boat Shops - Electronics Stores - Farm Supply Stores - Financial Institutions - General Aviation - General Public - Hobby Shops - Home Improvement - Hotels/Motels - Internet Cafes - Shopping Malls - Martial Arts/Paintball - Mass Transportation - Military Surplus - Peroxide Explosives - Recognizing Sleepers - Rental Cars - Rental Properties - Rental Trucks - Storage Facilities - Tattoo Shops.

The Colorado Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management produced a video "Eight Signs of Terrorism" that highlights indicators of potential terrorist activity and encourages reporting your observations to state Fusion Center or the local police.

There are certainly things that may indicate criminal activity - be that criminal activity terrorism or something else - and by reporting your observations of these indicators to your local police department you can help prevent crime and make a safer community in which to live.

The Problem with See Something - Say Something

 

Not everyone agrees that See Something - Say Something is a good idea. CSO Online published an article "25 More Ridiculous FBI Lists: You Might Be A Terrorist If..." expressing concern over the accuracy and value of these potential indicators of terrorism. The Huffington Post wrote about The Dangers of ‘See Something, Say Something’, and the  ACLU has challenged the "See Something, Say Something" surveillance program, saying "this program relies on local law enforcement, security guards, shopkeepers, and neighbors to report any "suspicious activities" they observe... Those suspicious activity reports (or SARs, for short) are stockpiled in a giant database and shared with state, local, and federal government agencies throughout the country. The problem is that, contrary to a binding federal regulation, the government doesn’t require even reasonable suspicion of criminal activity for a SAR to be maintained and shared."

The indicators of potential terrorist activity listed in the Communities Against Terrorism flyers, and often repeated by law enforcement and security agencies, are so broad that they can include almost anyone.

When we look at the "Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Internet Café" (one of the Communities Against Terrorism flyers) we see that being concerned with privacy, paying with cash, using means [like a VPN] to shield your IP address, or using encryption are things that should be considered suspicious. Yet these are some of the same types of things cyber-security experts recommend that you do to protect yourself when using a public Internet connection.

Many of indicators of potential terrorist activities listed in the Communities Against Terrorism flyers involve constitutionally protected activity by law-abiding citizens; and an individual’s mere engagement in these protected activities - whether alone or with others - cannot legally be the sole basis for negative inferences about or affirmative scrutiny of those individual(s).

No investigative activity should be conducted based solely on a person exercising his or her First Amendment rights. Constitutionally protected activities should not be reported absent articulable facts and circumstances that support an assessment that the observed behavior is reasonably indicative of criminal activity.

We have been told that photography is a suspicious activity that should be reported. According to security expert Bruce Schneier: "Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required. Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything, neither did the shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US Government likes to talk about - the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lakawanna 6 - no photography."

The problem is that we have come to the point were nothing is too trivial to report (which is just wrong), and these reports generate investigative activity targeting people who have done nothing wrong. These investigations can go on for weeks, months, or even years - generating files and records about individuals who have broken no laws, yet were somehow identified as being suspicious.

When this suspicious activity reporting gets out of hand, and when government agencies conduct unwarranted investigations and apprehensions because of anti-terrorism reports, these agencies can be held accountable for their actions in lawsuits brought against them, as we see in this example: "A political activist Phil Chinn, a student at Olympia’s Evergreen State College in 2007, was driving with friends to an antiwar protest at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen [WA] in May of that year. Unbeknownst to Chinn and his friends at the time, the Washington State Patrol had issued an ‘attempt-to-locate’ code for Chinn’s license plate with a message to apprehend "three known anarchists"... Chinn’s charges were eventually dismissed and in 2009 he sued the state patrol, City of Aberdeen, and Grays Harbor County for harassment and false arrest. To avoid disclosure of what the federal government called "Sensitive Security Information," the case was quickly settled for more than $400,000." (Huffington Post)

To Say Something or Not To Say Something?

Should you report suspicious activity to your local police department, to your state Fusion Center, or to the FBI? The original concept of See Something - Say Something as a way to detect potential terrorist activity may have been a good idea, but as we read in a September 2013 report from TechDirt the "'See Something, Say Something' Campaign Creates Massive Database Of Useless Info From Citizens Spying On Each Other", and that problem has only become worse since then.

Generally speaking, I believe that suspicious activity reporting does more harm than good. It trades our essential liberties for a temporary security. Because a suspicious activity report doesn’t require even reasonable suspicion of criminal activity for the SAR to be maintained and shared, individuals who have done nothing wrong can find that they are listed in anti-terrorism databases, in police records, and are the subject of on-going investigations with no way to address the allegations made against them. Even after it is determined that no crime was committed, and that the person named in a suspicious activity report did nothing wrong, those reports don't go away.

Of course, if you see something that you believe is a real threat to your community, and can articulate why you believe it to be a threat, you should definitely report it by calling 911.

According to the Seattle, WA Police Department you should call 911:

• When you have a Police, Fire or Medical emergency.
• There is a situation that could, or does, pose a danger to life, property or both.
• There is a suspicious activity involving a person that appears to have criminal intent.
• Any situation that requires immediate dispatch of an officer.
• To report a serious crime, such as robbery, domestic violence or sexual assault.  

Suspicious activity where you believe that the person you are reporting has criminal intent is the key to effective and proper reporting. Before you make a suspicious activity report ask yourself why is the activity you are reporting suspicious and what crime do you think the person you are reporting is committing or is about to commit?

See Something - Say Something? Well, maybe not!