Santa Cruz Public Safety Committee Meeting on SCPD Spying

Vinney, thanks for posting this.

It was a bit heartening.

Skerry was extremely evasive and misleading. He said the department did not voluntarily share info with other agencies, even giving an example of how City librarians had refused to share book borrowing information with law enforcement recently. Not only did this not represent the actions of the SCPD, but was a red herring. He omited the important info from his own internal investigation that they had excitedly shared info learned during parade spying about the Victoria's Secret protest with Capitola Police.

I don't believe for a minute that they've not monitored any other first amendment activities. In answer to the direct question, Skerry's answer (and then only after repeated questioning resulted in three evasive answers) was "the record request turned up no records." I wanted to know if he personally KNEW of anything. He's been the chief during the three year period we are talking about, and worked his way up the ranks for years before that. It there was spying on first amendment activities, he'd know about it. He never answered the question.

Also, disturbing is that Skerry described the process of meeting with the ACLU, as, "We'll meet with the ACLU and then go back to staff and draft a policy." That is NOT how it should happen, the ACLU should be involved at every step, not just provide initial consultation that they can feel free to ignore.

Skerry was somewhat dismissive of the PSCs interest in what he knew and their power to compel him to do anything. Even joking at one point, "You are not my direct boss."

It is worth a listen.