New U.S. spying rules worry rights groups

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- New U.S. spying rules that would allow local police departments to share intelligence data with the FBI and CIA will endanger civil rights, critics say.

Part of an effort by the U.S. Department of Justice to streamline the nation's anti-terrorism defenses is a proposal that would make it easier for local police departments to give sensitive data gathered from domestic spying to federal agencies, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

That has critics worried because police departments aren't trained to protect the civil rights of surveillance subjects and may be encouraged to expand upon recent instances of illegal infiltration of peaceful groups of political dissenters.

"If police officers no longer see themselves as engaged in protecting their communities from criminals and instead as domestic intelligence agents working on behalf of the CIA, they will be encouraged to collect more information," Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post. "It turns police officers into spies on behalf of the federal government."

However, Jim McMahon of the International Association of Chiefs of Police said the new rules "catch up with reality" because it's local police who investigate money laundering, drug trafficking and document fraud connected to terrorism.