Students under surveillance?
Secrecy surrounding SFSU's routine use of undercover cops to videotape political events raises concerns

By Camille T. Taiara

A civil lawsuit accusing San Francisco State University of discriminating against Arab and Muslim student activists has revealed that the university routinely uses undercover cops to videotape political events on campus, according to a sworn deposition by SFSU police chief Kim Wible.

The practice differs from policies at several area police departments that prohibit undercover surveillance of First Amendment activities. Wible's testimony also leaves unanswered questions about how those videos are being used.

Responding to questions about a video taken by an undercover SFSU police officer of a peaceful April 9, 2002, rally sponsored by the General Union of Palestinian Students and the Muslim Student Association, Wible testified that such procedures are regularly employed "for all large rallies or protests that occur on campus" so there is evidence in case violence or other crimes occur.

The university is refusing to release the video to the public. It also has made no indication that the footage has been destroyed, despite Wible's testimony that "the video was not undertaken for purposes of surveillance nor is it a part of an investigatory or security file."

Wible's assertion begs the question: why is the university holding on to footage that's not part of an active investigation? "If there's a videotape that's been taken, that isn't for security or intelligence reasons, I'd want to know why it's not being released," Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union, told us.

A look at related policies followed by the San Francisco Police Department and the UC Berkeley Police Department, for example, confirms that SFSU's practices violate recognized standards on a number of counts. First, the videotaping of First Amendment activities is only considered acceptable protocol by the UCPD and the SFPD when laws are being broken or when the police have good reason to believe that criminal actions are imminent. Even then, SFPD regulations preclude assigning undercover personnel unless using uniformed officers is clearly not practicable. UCPD policies specifically require that officers videotaping any such events wear police identification.

The UCPD and the SFPD faxed the Bay Guardian copies of their policies for monitoring First Amendment activities within 30 minutes of our request. Yet SFSU campus authorities would not release the school's guidelines to either the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) or the Bay Guardian, saying that to do so would compromise the safety of their officers and their ability to ensure public security on campus.

Nor would SFSU spokesperson Christina Holmes answer our questions about who maintains such records, how long they are maintained, and whether the university could provide any guarantees that they would not be shared with other government agencies.

ADC attorney Osha Neumann said that using plainclothes officers to videotape political events automatically casts suspicion on anyone taking footage. Worse, he worries about the chilling effect it can have on political participation. Speakers, he said, will be wary of saying anything critical of the government if they know they might wind up in a police file.

"In this climate of this really close integration between the federal government and local police forces, and particularly the focus on Arab and Muslim students, it's very troubling," he said. "There's no control over what the department is doing with this undercover footage."

Wible's testimony divulging SFSU's routine use of undercover officers to tape events was the outcome of an ADC lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court to try to force SFSU into complying with a related public records request. The ADC filed the request in an effort to collect supporting evidence for a complaint it filed with the Department of Education a year ago, in which it charged SFSU with employing discriminatory practices against Arab and Muslim students following a May 7, 2002, pro-Israel rally and counterdemonstration (see "State of Unrest," 7/10/02).

E-mail Camille T. Taiara