Legal Research

FBI Starts e-Guardian To share Terror Tips Nationwide

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, January 14, 2009.

"The FBI has launched a system to share tips about possible terror threats with local police agencies, reports the Associated Press. The program aims to get law enforcement at all levels sharing data quickly about suspicious activity and people, particularly in and around the nation's capital in the week leading up to the inaguration. Officials are getting as many as 1,000 tips a day from the public."

"Called e-Guardian, the program had been delayed before launching New Year's Eve as a system available to law enforcement agencies around the U.S. Authorities hope it overcomes a drawback of another version, which let police report their suspicions to the FBI but didn't allow officers to search the system for similar patterns elsewhere. Any law enforcement officer with an an account on the system can access e-Guardian. American Civil Liberties Union counsel Michael German, a former FBI agent, asked 'what's being collected, who is it being shared with, and who is responsible for any action taken as a result? If the federal government is creating this national system, it's their responsibility that only the proper and correct information is being put in.' " 

Associated Press/USA Today

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on January 14, 2009 (boomark / email).