Gabriele said that it is not unusual for any police department to collect information about what a protest group is planning to do so that officers can plan and respond appropriately.
"Collecting information about what you're up against is a normal process," he said. "It's very straightforward."
Asked why the operation continued for 14 months, Gabriele replied, "I'm not in a position to respond to that."
The other assistant chief overseeing the surveillance was Major John "Jack" Simpson of the special operations division. Simpson is now in the state police support services bureau.
Gabriele said he gave daily reports to his superior, a major in the state police homeland security bureau. "What the major did with that information, I haven't a clue," he said.The surveillance operation was revealed last week when the ACLU released 43 pages of state police summaries and computer logs that it had obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act lawsuit.
Under the direction of Simpson and Gabriele, Sheridan said, undercover agents secretly joined the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group; the Baltimore Coalition Against the Death Penalty; and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate.
David Rocah, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Maryland, said Sheridan's remarks yesterday did "incredibly little to assuage our concerns or answer our questions." He did not attend the news conference, but an ACLU intern attended and took notes, he said.
"It's very troubling to hear the state police say they've done nothing illegal or improper," he said. "Sheridan's statements demonstrate just the opposite. He says the surveillance began because of fears of disturbances about Vernon Evans. ... He has not disclosed the slightest scintilla of evidence to give any basis for a fear that something would occur. Federal law exists to prevent what he is now saying is OK."
Rocah said state police had more questions to answer and also needed to purge records they gathered about the activists. He said the ACLU "would pursue every legal tool at our disposal" to make sure that happens.
The activity occurred during former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration when Thomas E. Hutchins was the head of the state police. Both Hutchins and Ehrlich have said the state police did nothing illegal.
