DO READ --- Quota system for Air Marshal Surveillance Detection Reports?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Brock N. Meeks" <bmeeks () cox net>
Date: July 26, 2006 9:45:28 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Quota system for Air Marshal Surveillance Detection  
Reports?

Well, it so happens that I was the one that BROKE this story... way  
back in
2004.  There were at least two offices, Miami and Las Vegas that had  
this
quota system for writing up and filing "SDRs."

The requirement was totally renegade and NOT endorsed by Air Marshal
officials in Washington.  The Las Vegas Air Marshal field office was (I
think he's retired now) by a real cowboy at the time, someone that  
caused a
lot of problems for the Washington HQ staff.  (That official once  
grilled an
Air Marshal for three hours in an interrogation room because he  
thought the
air marshal was source of mine on another story.  The air marshal was  
then
taken off flight status and made to wash the office cars for two  
weeks... I
broke that story, too.  And no, the punished air marshal was never a  
source
of mine.)

Air marshals told they were filing false reports, as they did below,  
just to
hit the quota.

When my story hit, those in the offices of Las Vegas and Miami were
reprimanded and the practice was ordered stopped by Washington HQ.

I suppose the biggest question I have for this story is the HYPE of what
happens to these reports.  They do NOT place the person mention on a  
"watch
list."  These reports, filed on Palm Pilot PDAs, go into an internal Air
Marshal database that is rarely seen and pretty much ignored by other
intelligence agencies, from all sources I talked to.

Why?  Because the air marshals are seen as little more than "sky  
cops" and
these SDRs considered little more than "field interviews" that cops
sometimes file when they question someone loitering at a 7-11 too  
late at
night.

The quota system, if it is still going on, is heinous, but it hardly  
results
in the big spooky data collection scare that this cheapjack Denver
"investigative" TV reporter makes it out to be.

The quoted former field official from Atlanta, Don Strange, did, in  
fact,
lose his job over trying to chance internal policies.  He was the most
well-liked official among the rank and file and the Atlanta office,  
under
his command, had the highest morale in the nation.


On 7/26/06 7:25 AM, "David Farber" <dave () farber net> wrote:

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Bob Drzyzgula <bob () drzyzgula org>
> Date: July 25, 2006 10:25:37 PM EDT
> To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
> Subject: Quota system for Air Marshal Surveillance Detection Reports?
>
>
> http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/9559707/detail.html
>
> | DENVER -- You could be on a secret government database or
> | watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some
> | federal air marshals say they're reporting your actions
> | to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.
> |
> | The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed,
> | told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one
> | report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus,
> | no awards and no special assignments.
> |
> | "Innocent passengers are being entered into an
> | international intelligence database as suspicious persons,
> | acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they
> | did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.
> |
> | These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong
> | are landing in a secret government document called a
> | Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR. Air marshals told
> | 7NEWS that managers in Las Vegas created and continue to
> | maintain this potentially dangerous quota system.
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | That's why several air marshals object to a July 2004 memo
> | from top management in the Las Vegas office, a memo that
> | reminded air marshals of the SDR requirement.
> |
> | The body of the memo said, "Each federal air marshal is
> | now expected to generate at least one SDR per month."
> |
> | "Does that memo read to you that Federal Air Marshal
> | headquarters has set a quota on these reports?" Kovaleski
> | asked.
> |
> | "Absolutely, no doubt," an air marshal replied.
> |
> | A second management memo, also dated July 2004, said,
> | "There may come an occasion when you just don't see
> | anything out of the ordinary for a month at a time, but I'm
> | sure that if you are looking for it, you'll see something."
> |
> | [...]
>
>
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