Originally Posted by WCCO

A search warrant indicates that police traced a security leak ahead of the Republican National Convention to a FedEx/Kinko's shop in St. Paul.

A company helping police prepare for the convention went to the shop to copy training documents. Those documents later turned up on the Web site of an anarchist group that promised to "crash the convention."

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Police -- believing someone at the shop could have made the materials available to the anarchists -- narrowed their search to a shop employee. That 31-year-old employee has not been charged with a crime.

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His apartment was searched a week before the start of the Republican convention. Police found thumb drives, a laptop computer, two hard drives and a digital camera. They also found a small amount of suspected marijuana.

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

No felony charges will be filed against a former FedEx/Kinko's employee suspected of purloining copies of police training documents that later showed up on an anarchist group's website, authorities said Thursday.

According to a search warrant affidavit, the 31-year-old St. Paul man worked on a printing job ordered July 28 [note the date!] by Defense Technology....

Originally Posted by Pioneer Press

He no longer works at Kinko's and as for any criminal charges, the Ramsey County Attorney's office says it looked at the case and could not find any evidence that would bring about felony criminal charges.

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

A nine-page manual titled "Saint Paul Police Department's SIU Policy and Guidelines for Investigations and Information Gathering Operations Involving First Amendment Activity" is still on the group's site.

Originally Posted by WCCO

St. Paul police officials would not discuss the role of Defense Technology in convention security arrangements. Spokesman Tom Walsh said it is common for police to take materials to Kinko's and other copy centers and that the department has a contract with the company.

Originally Posted by TC Daily Planet

Excerpts from St. Paul Police Department’s SIU (Special Investigations Unit) Policy and Guidelines for Investigations and Information Gathering Operations Involving First Amendment Activity.
General Information Activities

Information systems: The SPPD is authorized to participate in the identifying, tracking, and operating of informational systems for identifying and locating persons involved with the planning and execution of unlawful activities, or otherwise detecting, prosecuting, or preventing unlawful activities.

Visiting Public Places and Events: For the purpose of detecting or preventing unlawful activities, the SPPD is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions of the general public. Still photographs and videotapes of public gatherings may be performed so long as the public gathering is not singled out on the basis of the message. The Department may record a public event for a legitimate law enforcement purpose such as identifying suspicious activity, intelligence gathering, identifying unlawful activity, recording criminal acts, or training purposes.

No information obtained from such visits shall be retained unless it relates to potential unlawful activity or training purposes.

General Topical Research: The SPPD is authorized to carry out generalresearch, including conducting online searches and accessing online sites and forums, as part of research on the terms and conditions, as members of the public generally.…

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

After reading the policy, civil-rights lawyer David Kairys said it signals a police plan to investigate protest groups coming to the convention. "It sounds like they are going to do it, putting in language that would be useful if it is challenged," said Kairys, who is also a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Originally Posted by Star Tribune

The policy's protection of free speech rights gets mixed reviews.

[Former Mpls Police Chief Tona] Bouza calls it "eloquent" for its "sensitivity" to protesters' constitutional rights. But he said the guidelines should be more clear about the right of police to infiltrate groups and demonstrations. The policy says undercover operatives are barred from "instigating unlawful acts" and cannot take leadership positions in a group.

"This was drafted by somebody to provide protections for someone spying on people," says Michael Avery, a law professor at Suffolk University and former president of the National Lawyers Guild.

"I think, as it is written, it has a lot of progressive elements to it," said Alex Vitale, assistant professor at Brooklyn College who wrote a report for the New York ACLU on the 2004 Republican convention, which was held in New York City.

Originally Posted by Joe Soucheray in the Pioneer Press

Defense Technology went to Kinko's and then had the audacity to be astonished and angry that the documents and the information they contained ended up on the Web site of the RNC Welcoming Committee, the group that promised to crash and disrupt the convention.

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Meanwhile, so long as outfits like Defense Technology go to places like the Kinko's across the street from Macalester, I don't think we have anything to fear, much less worry about. These people are as sloppy as the rest of us.

Originally Posted by KARE11

In another high-profile case, the county attorney declined to press charges against Aaron Lee Fisher, the Kinko's employee suspected of taking digital copies of documents related to RNC security plans. A private company assisting the St. Paul police with the plans was copying the materials at the Kinko's shop, and some documents later ended up on the Web site for an anarchist group that had pledged to disrupt the convention.

The county attorney cited lack of an applicable law as the reason for not filing felony charges against Fisher.