The Palm Beach, Florida police program is the first of its kind in America. The
Community Partners Against Terrorism (CPAT) initiative sprang out of the
half-billion dollars dropped into Urban Area Security grants by the Department
of Homeland Security. CPAT's founder Sheriff Ric Bradshaw explains the purpose of the new police hot line that solicits
anonymous tips:
“We want people to call us if the guy down the street
says he hates the government, hates the mayor, and he’s gonna shoot him. What
does it hurt to have somebody knock on a door and ask, ‘Hey, is everything
OK?’”
Bradshaw wants to know who mutters against “the system” and who
hangs a “Don't Tread on Me” banner on a bedroom wall. A video on his website
urges local citizens to report on suspicious activity such as the photographing
of a bridge.
Local authorities can often perform functions that are legally forbidden to the
federal DHS. In 2002, President George W. Bush introduced a domestic-spying
program called Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) by
which average citizens reported suspicious activity.
It especially appealed for information from workers who had access to private
dwellings such as plumbers or television repairmen. TIPS was eventually
abandoned due to a backlash that persistently compared the program to the
domestic spy structure of the Stasi in communist East Germany.
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