"The Department of Homeland Security has for quite some time been seeking to enlist local law enforcement to become domestic surveillance agencies and has been pouring literally millions upon millions of dollars into them," said David Rocah, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Maryland.
"These local agencies then have a need to justify the extraordinary amount of funding that they are getting, and in the absence of actual terrorists, they have to find a terrorist under every rock," he said.
Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, the state police superintendent, has denied that any illegal actions have been taken by state police against lawful protesters. Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, has said the operations ended before he took office in January 2007.
State police spokesman Gregory Shipley said public safety concerns prompted the surveillance and that he had not been briefed on information regarding federal funding.
"In the future, this certainly will not occur unless there is some sort of illegal activity or criminal nexus that is part of the investigation," Shipley said. "There just won't be any intrusion unless that is present."
Ehrlich, a Republican, said in an interview on WBAL-AM that he was not asked to give approval for the surveillance but that an assistant attorney general assigned to the state police approved it. However, Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, said the state police never requested the agency's opinion on the matter.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment, as a matter of policy.
The Maryland operation has drawn scrutiny from several corners of Capitol Hill. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, who chairs a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said last week that he would investigate the surveillance.
The Ohio Democrat and former presidential candidate is known for his antiwar activism, his legislation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and his efforts to create a federal Department of Peace. He said he wants his subcommittee on domestic policy to determine the extent of the spying and who ordered it.
"Most people would be upset to know that police were spying on lawful citizens and infiltrating peaceful organizations, rather than chasing down real criminals," Kucinich said. "At a minimum, such police spying is clearly a waste of taxpayer dollars and a diversion from the mission of protecting and serving the people."
