ACLU-NC and Student Group Seek Information About Undercover Surveillance at Fresno State University

Freedom of Information Act Request Filed;
For Immediate Release: April 27, 2005

FRESNO—The ACLU-NC and Campus Peace and Civil Liberties (CPCLC), a Fresno State University student group, today filed a Public Records Act request with the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department and a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI following statements by university officials that there were several plainclothes police officers present at a student-sponsored lecture last Fall. The Fresno County Sheriff’s Department is currently under investigation by the California Attorney General’s office following disclosures that the department infiltrated Peace Fresno, an anti-war group, in 2003.

On November 10, CPCLC sponsored an on-campus lecture and discussion by Gary Yourofsky, a nationally renown animal rights lecturer. On February 3, it was revealed by university administrators that members of the law enforcement intelligence community attended the lecture in plain clothes. Since then, University President John Welty has confirmed that six undercover law enforcement agents attended the event.

“The University administration has not been honest with us and we want the administration to lift the veil of secrecy and tell us the truth. We have a right to know,” said Ruth Obel-Jorgensen, president of CPCLC. Along with other students, she is leading an on-campus hunger strike protesting the University’s actions.

In an open letter to Fresno State University President John Welty, the groups urge the university to adopt a clear policy limiting the use of undercover surveillance by campus police officers; ensure that all Fresno State officers and administrators are immediately informed of and trained on the new policy; and ensure that the privacy rights of the campus community are protected against intrusion by outside law enforcement agencies.

“The University’s Director of Public Safety claims that there are undercover police everywhere gathering intelligence, even in churches and schools,” said Mark Schlosberg, ACLU-NC Police Practices Policy Director. “Such rampant surveillance is not allowed under California’s Constitution. The university should come clean and reform its law enforcement practices immediately.”

This is not the first time a Fresno peace group has been the focus of government surveillance. In September 2003, the ACLU and Peace Fresno discovered that the anti-war group was infiltrated. On September 23, 2003, as a result of a local story about the tragic death of Aaron Kilner, the groups learned that Mr. Kilner was a member of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department’s anti-terrorism unit and that he had infiltrated Peace Fresno six months earlier.

“Why is the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department wasting valuable tax-payer dollars on people who are exercising their First Amendment rights?” asks Nick deGraff, former president of Peace Fresno. “Whether we are activists or students the government does not have the right to spy on us.”

Last October, following the news that Peace Fresno was infiltrated, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer distributed a handbook to California police and sheriff’s departments clarifying that law enforcment cannot monitor First Amendment protected activity in the absence of reasonable suspicion of a crime.