Pa. State Police says homeland security alerts caused problems, waste of resources

Pa. State Police says bulletins caused headaches

HARRISBURG, Pa. — High-ranking leaders of the Pennsylvania State Police say unsubstantiated or needlessly inflammatory listings in a series of state homeland security bulletins caused problems for their operations.

The head of the state police’s criminal investigation division testified at a Pennsylvania Senate hearing Monday regarding the notices on threats to infrastructure produced by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response for the state. Maj. George Bivens said some of the alerts resulted in a waste of manpower to address nonexistent threats.

Gov. Ed Rendell is not renewing the institute’s contract when it expires next month and is no longer distributing its alerts. He has described the information as useless.

Also Monday, a civil rights lawsuit was filed by a citizens watchdog group against the institute. It seeks a court order against domestic surveillance.