Recently,
the Bush Administration proposed a program that encourages truck drivers, cable
repair people and others who work with and around the public to report
"suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity" to law enforcement
personnel. The president believes that this strategy, called Terrorism
Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, will increase the information
available on suspected terrorist activity and thus reduce its occurrence.
Supporters of the plan, like Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, insist that
people who do not commit crimes “have nothing to worry about.” They contend
that the government needs new tools like TIPS to effectively address the
problem of terrorism.
But their contentions fail to acknowledge serious questions.
For one, how will the “tipsters”, most of whom have no law enforcement
training, distinguish between legal acts and illegal ones? For example, the
fine line between free speech and “hate” speech confuses many people. Of course,
the tipsters will be attempting to perform their usual job at the same time.
They are bound to be distracted.
For another, where will the tipster information go? If the government intends
to keep a database of all of the information, it will not likely screen or
discard data of people who do nothing wrong. Innocent people could be
implicated if the files are opened.
Lastly, the program will not only watch people in public, it may mistakenly
watch them in their privacy. Even if this program is to be confined to public
areas, the tipsters may misunderstand that the law allows protection from
unreasonable searches and seizures in public areas in some circumstances.
Congress should vote down this misguided plan. If people could identify
terrorists as easily as the supporters of this program seem to believe, the
attacks of September 11 would have been prevented as soon as the terrorists got
to the airports. Let’s not let our government take
away what the terrorists could not: our privacy and our right to be left alone.