DHS Focus on "Soft Targets" Risks Out-of-Control Surveillance | ACLU

U.S. Department of Homeland Security is investing resources in what it calls protecting “soft targets” David Gergen : Do we want DHS having a role in all of those spaces? He says efforts to secure soft targets may lead to the “airportization” of American life by encouraging local authorities to increase security perimeters, searches, and surveillance at an ever-widening group of public gatherings and events.

Gergen says DHS has begun work in this area through the funding of an industry or academic research and development center.

These efforts also perpetuate the intangible social and psychological costs that come from surveillance, submission to authority, and the lack of an open society. We recently filed comments with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board ( PCLOB ), an agency created by Congress to serve as a check and balance on our security agencies, urging the agency to keep a close eye on these activities, among others. Given the sensitivity around surveilling people in public places, those activities bear close watching — something we will be doing as well..