ap: Denver opens 3,200 'spy files'
The Denver police spy files have been opened to the public – after some old-fashioned black marker censorship, of course. AP doesn’t say what happened to the 22 files that the federal government contested.
About 200 people crowded the lobby of Police Department headquarters Tuesday after officials opened 3,200 “spy files” on local activists and organizations.[...]
Many who waited for up to an hour to see their file received papers that still smelled of black marker where police had deleted the names of people linked to them. Some of these files, which were categorized by groups, individuals and incidents, contained inaccurate information, some said.
[Legal secretary Barbara Cohen], who belongs to the group End the Politics of Cruelty, said she is considering a lawsuit after police linked her to a motorcycle group she never heard of.
[...]
Records of people not suspected of crimes will be released to those people, then purged after Nov. 1. However, the city attorney’s office will keep copies of all files, including those eliminated by police.
The names of people or groups considered legitimate targets of surveillance, as determined by an outside auditor, will remain in the files and won’t be released.