Some of those who work forces

404 Media reports on the casual alliance between police and ICE agents:

Local police in Oregon casually offered various surveillance services to federal law enforcement officials from the FBI and ICE, and to other state and local police departments, as part of an informal email and meetup group of crime analysts, internal emails shared with 404 Media show. 

In Medford, Oregon, police and ICE shared information with each other on an as-needed basis, both via email and a meetup group called the “Southern Oregon Analyst Group”. This also allowed different police departments to share surveillance data with each other based on what each had access to.

This is part of a broader pattern of sharing that happens at, and between, every level: ICE and local Medford police are two examples, but intelligence agencies in different countries are known to share information with each other to dodge local privacy laws and civil rights. In this case, I’d be surprised if there was any intent to bypass regulations or norms here; the Medford police actively want to support ICE, so they do.

But in reality, it does bypass Oregon’s rules around sharing this kind of information, which are relatively strong. Part of the solution has to be both better training and stronger enforcement of the rules — which in turn requires leadership that wants to enforce the rules. Many police departments seem to be eagerly complicit, so that may be hard to come by.

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