# The Secret Police: Cops Built a Shadowy Surveillance Machine in Minnesota After George Floyd’s Murder  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Tate Ryan-Mosley Sam Richards]] - Full Title:: The Secret Police: Cops Built a Shadowy Surveillance Machine in Minnesota After George Floyd’s Murder - Category: #articles - URL: https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/03/03/1046676/police-surveillance-minnesota-george-floyd/?truid=&utm_source=the_download&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement&utm_term=Active%20Qualified&utm_content=09-18-2023&mc_cid=71bd6a3a07&mc_eid=028dd411a4 ## Highlights > MIT Technology Review’s investigation includes thousands of documents and more than two dozen interviews with Minnesota state employees, policing experts, and activists ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqh3x2sany6p4xjn47faxyf)) > Publicly, OSN acknowledged that federal agencies would assist in monitoring for threats of violence and activity by out-of-state extremist groups, and that an “intel team” would be established to help share information surrounding these threats. Our investigation shows that federal support for OSN was in fact extensive, involving the US Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At least six FBI agents served in executive and intelligence roles for the program. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqh4jwhxyx5yswhgtw6f2sx)) > Documents unearthed as part of this investigation shine a light on secretive surveillance programs, new technology vendors, murky supply chains used to arm riot police, and several watch lists, as well as other previously unreported information. Taken together, they reveal how advanced surveillance techniques and technologies employed by the state, sometimes in an extra-legal fashion, have changed the nature of protest in the United States, effectively bringing an end to Americans’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights anonymously in public spaces. The Supreme Court has consistently upheld the right to anonymous free speech as a core tenet of the First Amendment, particularly when it comes to unpopular speech. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhcbadfz477yqtcrr2jc5b)) > All told, the operation cost tens of millions of public dollars, paid by the participating agencies. The Minnesota State Patrol alone paid $1,048,946.57, according to an email sent to MIT Technology Review, and the Minnesota National Guard estimated that its role cost at least $25 million. > Despite the public costs, the detentions, and the criticism, however, most details of OSN’s attempts to surveil the public remained secret. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqher8afdc8ygh3w89egs1k)) #### Surveillance tools > OSN also used a real-time data-sharing tool called Intrepid Response, which is sold on a subscription basis by AT&T ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhfdf9tjp1eqekkxfm8bgz)) > Although the State Patrol denied numerous records requests from MIT Technology Review regarding the detention and photographing of journalists, photojournalist J.D. Duggan was able to obtain his personal file—a total of three pages of material. The information Duggan obtained illuminates the extent of law enforcement’s efforts to track individuals in real time: the pages include photos of his face, body, and press badge, surrounded by time stamps and maps showing the location of his brief detention. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhggmwnrt7kb4yqkb04am0)) > Previous [reporting](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolinehaskins1/george-floyd-protests-surveillance-technology) has shown that policing agencies participating in OSN also had access to many other technological surveillance tools, including a face recognition system made by the controversial firm [Clearview AI](https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/09/1022240/clearview-ai-nypd-emails/), cell site simulators for cell-phone surveillance, license plate readers, and drones. Extensive social media intelligence gathering was a core part of OSN as well. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhgw3y941yxcr8c4gemdf1)) > Drones were also used during the earlier protests following Floyd’s murder, when [a Predator operated by US Customs and Border Patrol](https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/29/21274828/drone-minneapolis-protests-predator-surveillance-police)—a technology typically used to monitor battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere—was spotted flying over the city. Interestingly, the drone flight and two National Guard spy plane flights revealed that the aerial surveillance technology the police already owned was actually superior ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhhpkv9qbp7wv79t6avxsb)) > Police also issued a warrant to obtain [Google geolocation](https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/06/minneapolis-protests-geofence-warrant/) information of people involved in the protests in May 2020. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhj4dgfpjmh2t9qprehhsf)) > the Strategic Information Center. The SIC, as it’s called, was a central planning site for Operation Safety Net and also functions as an [intelligence analysis hub](https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/analysis/Minneapolis%20Police%20Dpt%20Strategic%20Info%20Ctr%20Policies%20%26%20Procedures.pdf), known as a “fusion center,” for the Minneapolis Police Department ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhk70mm42axkd0y8b1yq7e)) > Federal agents had also been deployed to several cities, including New York and [Seattle](https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/5/22918487/fbi-geofence-seattle-blm-protest-police-guild-attack), during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. In Portland, Oregon, the FBI launched a months-long surveillance operation which involved covertly filming activists. On June 2, 2020, the deputy director of the FBI David Bowdich [released a memo encouraging aggressive surveillance of the activists](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/us/federal-agents-portland-seattle-protests.html), calling the protest movement “a national crisis.” The Department of Homeland Security also deployed around 200 personnel to cities around the US, with most reporting to Portland. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhn1xsapdw4k6rp8q57rrf)) > Instead of looking for terrorist threats, fusion centers were monitoring lawful political and religious activity. The Virginia Fusion Center described a Muslim get-out–the-vote campaign as ‘subversive,’” reads a [2012 report from the Brennan Center](https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/fusion-centers-need-more-rules-oversight), a law and policy think tank ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhq9mh83drcdf8gs6yhvwe)) > In 2009, the North Central Texas Fusion Center identified lobbying by Muslim groups as a possible threat ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhr6m13tjf0dkrw05x82tf)) > isolated episodes, but a two-year Senate investigation found that such tactics were hardly rare ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhrq5t2a9qjdf5ska117zc)) > It concluded that fusion centers routinely produce ‘irrelevant, useless, or inappropriate’ intelligence that endangers civil liberties ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhrvr14j56s0jm7fc9xmsw)) #### Anonymity is a shield” > The events in Minnesota have ushered in a new era of protest policing. Protests that were intended to call attention to the injustices committed by police effectively served as an opportunity for those police forces to consolidate power, bolster their inventories, solidify relationships with federal forces, and update their technology and training to achieve a far more powerful, interconnected surveillance apparatus ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhvcdqxh0cxh7ak0c9kzc2)) > Anonymity is an important though muddy tenet of free speech ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhvtptwmr9aa4xzggw728v)) > In a landmark 1995 Supreme Court case, *McIntyre* v. *Ohio*, the court declared that “anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority.” Clare ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01haqhw10xe9arnwyjc5dhgzje))