Denver Police Files Raise Rights Concerns

DENVER, March 13 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado has accused the Denver Police Department of maintaining secret and illegal files on hundreds of groups and people, and the mayor has asked for a review of the department's policies.

"The police have no legitimate reason to keep files on the peaceful expression of political views and opinions," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the A.C.L.U. of Colorado. The organization said it had copies of some files, but Mr. Silverstein declined to say how it had obtained them.

Groups that files were kept on include Amnesty International, the American Friends Service Committee and End the Politics of Cruelty, a local group that focuses on police accountability.

"Denver residents should feel free to join a peaceful protest without fear that their names will wind up in police files," Mr. Silverstein said.

The Denver Department of Safety, which oversees the police department, met this week with the city attorney and the assistant police chief and said there would be a review of the policies.

"I don't think there were any rights that were violated, but even if there is a perception of that, we want to aggressively make sure it doesn't happen," said Ari Zavaras, manager of public safety. "I think we're over the hill on getting this solved and it was a problem with the interpretation of the policy. What officers did was within the policy, but overly broad."

This afternoon, Mayor Wellington Webb, who said he was unaware of the files until the A.C.L.U. brought them to light, said that they had apparently been kept since 1999, and covered 208 groups and roughly 3,200 individuals.

Mayor Webb said that he thought the A.C.L.U.'s concerns were legitimate and that it was not the police department's policy to keep such files.

"No information about political, religious or social views, associations or activities should be collected unless the information relates to a criminal activity and the subject is suspected of criminal activity," he said.

Mayor Webb said the city's policies would be reviewed and an independent third party would review the files. He said such files would be audited and purged regularly.

Mr. Silverstein has asked the mayor to prohibit the police department from sharing the files with other law enforcement agencies, to allow people named in the files an opportunity to review them and to provide a public accounting of the files.

The files list some individuals and groups as "criminal extremist." The Chiapas Coalition, a loose-knit group in Denver that says it supports the rights of the indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico, is one of those groups. The file on the group says that it is "dedicated to overthrow of Mexican government."

The Chiapas file, part of which was posted on the Colorado A.C.L.U.'s Web site, includes addresses for Kerry Appel, the coalition's leader, and locations where he had protested.

"Beyond being shocked, surprised, I was angry at what was written," Mr. Appel said. "It's inaccurate, incompetent, inept and just wrong. It's one thing to have a file on you, but none of us have ever been convicted of a crime and we're not a criminal extremist group."

"People come to our activities out of sincere political and moral beliefs," Mr. Appel added. "In 20 years, these people might apply for a visa or a teaching job and be turned down because there is this file that says they are a criminal extremist."

Some cities and police departments, including San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Ore., have ordinances or policies that prevent such information gathering.

"This smacks of exactly what the F.B.I. was doing in the 1960's," said Alan Schlosser, legal director for the A.C.L.U. of San Francisco. "There is a concern in the wake of 9/11 that needs for security might lead to some elements of thinking in law enforcement to going back to the bad old days."

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