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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 23, 2006 APD ‘watch list’ stirs ACLU to action Organization asks City of Ashland for a ‘prompt and full disclosure of all facts and documents’ By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon has called upon the city of Ashland to address a watch list created by the Ashland Police Department and shared with the Ashland Chamber of Commerce. “This is to express our grave concerns about the Ashland Police Department’s development and uses of a “Watch List” of 24 downtown persons regarded as ‘nuisances,’” reads a letter written by Ashland resident and ACLU Southern Oregon chapter board member Ralph Temple sent to the city on Thursday. “In addition we are troubled that the Department distributed this list to certain members of the public.” The watch list, officially called “Friendly Fury 3 Watch Sheet,” contains names, photos and dates of birth for 24 male individuals that, according to an internal APD memo police “are having continuous problems with.” Ashland Police Department has used watch lists for at least three years as an internal tool. The watch sheet became a public document, and an issue the ACLU took umbrage with, when Sgt. Teresa Selby provided the list to the chamber of commerce in April. City Administrator Martha Bennett said, “The worst decision made [regarding the watch list] was the decision to release it.” The letter calls upon the mayor and city council to publicly address the issue and conduct a “prompt and full public disclosure of all facts and documents” relating to the watch list. Bennett said, “I think the council needs to have a discussion on whether or not this was appropriate. They can direct us to dig deeper into what happened but I don’t think a public hearing is appropriate.” Interim Ashland Police Chief Ron Goodpaster and City Attorney Mike Franell looked into the matter already and determined that no disciplinary action was warranted, according to Bennett. “We will not be releasing [watch lists to the public] in the future,” Goodpaster said. Franell, calling the watch list a non-issue, would not comment to this newspaper about the it, but told the Mail Tribune, “In the past the city of Ashland has an amicable relationship with the ACLU. If we are doing wrong, we’ll correct those things. The city is concerned about civil rights.” Bennett said they have discussed the watch list and Franell told her it was “not illegal to release it and not illegal to create it.” The ACLU of Oregon began looking into the watch list when two people on the list contacted the Southern Oregon chapter about it. Temple said the state-wide ACLU office directed him to write a letter about the matter to the city. “It’s a violation of people’s rights to be arbitrarily selected for special observation or enforcement action,” Temple said, in an interview on Thursday. “There is no perceivable basis to subject them to special observation.” The ACLU letter also took issue with the fact that APD shared the watch list with a select group of the public. Sgt. Teresa Selby took the watch list to a meeting with the chamber of commerce and Mayor John Morrison on April 17, at which time she shared the list with that group, according to a memo she wrote to Master Sgt. Bob Smith. “The chamber does have a copy of the photos because we were having issues with many of the people congregating there and targeting chamber employees when they left,” she said in the memo. The ACLU letter said, “The process of developing and using the list in apparent collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce, without contemporary consultations with a cross-section of the community ... can only serve to undermine the public’s trust in the undertaking.” Temple added, “For the police to be lending themselves to the goals of a particular private organization is not appropriate,” he said. “It appears as if the mercantile class is using the police to go after the poor.” Representatives of the chamber of commerce could not immediately be reached for comment but in the past have said the meetings with the mayor and police officers were critical to important issues facing the downtown. City Councilor Cate Hartzell first brought attention to the watch list by both asking the city attorney to render an opinion on its legality, as well as making public to its existence. She said she is having lunch with both the city administrator and the interim police chief at which time she will ask to be updated on the matter. “The whole matter underscores the importance of the community policing discussion,” she said. “Community policing embraces the idea of transparency and inclusivity when addressing important community issues pertaining to policing. What happened is a very dangerous indication of where some police officers are obviously comfortable going.” Councilors Alex Amarotico, David Chapman, and Russ Silbiger all agreed that the list should not have been made public. Silbiger and Amarotico refrained from passing judgment on its validity as a police tool, while Chapman said, “It seems like a reasonable police tool.” Mayor John Morrison and Councilor Kate Jackson could not immediately be reached for comment. According to Oregon court records, eight of the people listed have been convicted of felonies committed in Oregon. Of these, two were convicted of methamphetamine possession; one of selling marijuana; one for manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance; one for third-degree robbery and three for first-degree criminal mischief for vandalizing the fountain in Lithia Park in February. Among the various misdemeanor convictions was one man who was convicted three times for failing to register as a sex offender. Others listed were convicted for misdemeanors such as resisting arrest, trespassing, criminal mischief, fourth-degree assault and disorderly conduct. Of the 24 people listed, court records show 10 of them have not been convicted of crimes in Oregon. Out-of-state court records weren’t immediately available. In Selby’s memo she said, “The pictures on the sheet are not of the one-time offender but of those people who are creating a chronic nuisance or who have created a serious crime.” Temple added, “It is offensive to label people as a chronic nuisance. I don’t think that is a term in the law.” Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or [email protected]. Chris Conrad of the Mail Tribune contributed to this report. . DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams