Educating the public on this subject?

Is the Police Executive Research Forum subject to public oversight of their activities?

• After reading the numerous links provided in the post and discussion at Metafilter (http://www.metafilter.com/109630/Our-glorious-new-publicprivate-partnership-military-industrial-police-complex), I am rather concerned that police forces are coordinating actions and timing nation-wide, especially if their actions and the content of their discussions is not subject to public scrutiny. Are the OWS crackdown conference calls subject to FOIA through jurisdiction over PERF itself or its membership?

• Answer:

  PERF is neither a government not a government-funded organization, so its records are not subject to FOIA. PERF recently posted a statement concerning its networking activities with regard to the OWS events: http://policeforum.org/news/detail.dot?id=2161738. If law enforcement agencies don't share information through PERF, they will through other organizations or informal networks. The National Tactical Officers Association is a very active organization with several training events throughout the year and a national conference. I'd be very surprised if OWS isn't a topic of discussion at these meetings. That law enforcement agencies are cooperative doesn't mean they are conspiratorial. They are all interested in methods and tactics that are most and least effective, and "most effective" doesn't necessarily mean "most suppressive." They want to use approaches that result in the fewest injuries to protesters and officers, produce the fewest arrests, and keep their cities functioning.