how to find out if they have a file on you....

[homegrown terror]

....without putting your own neck on the chopping block. does anyone have a method of doing so? i'd just like to know how much the police/fbi know about me personally, for my own safety and that of my family.

EDIT: in case it's relevant, i've never been arrested, but i've been detained in catch-and-release actions at rallies on numerous occasions.

[Taters]

Well, you can apply to see your file under the FOIA. It takes a few months, I believe, but you'll see whatever info they've dug up on you, albeit likely heavily redacted. I've never applied for one myself, but I don't see how that would endanger you.

[slum]

i imagine they'd be suspicious of anyone who asked to see their file under the FOIA

they might, say, be inclined to open a file on you.

[Taters]

I hadn't thought of that. Yeah, don't do that.

[homegrown terror]

i imagine they'd be suspicious of anyone who asked to see their file under the FOIA

they might, say, be inclined to open a file on you.

that was exactly my concern.

[cyu]

I joke that I'd be disappointed if they didn't have a file on me - the longer my file, the more proof it would be that I'm actually accomplishing something ;)

My role model http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Parsons =D

Described by the Chicago Police Department as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters" in the 1920s

[Ele'ill]

....without putting your own neck on the chopping block. does anyone have a method of doing so? i'd just like to know how much the police/fbi know about me personally, for my own safety and that of my family.

EDIT: in case it's relevant, i've never been arrested, but i've been detained in catch-and-release actions at rallies on numerous occasions.

I wouldn't do the 'oh hay do u have terrorizst fyles on me' approach. It seems incredibly incriminating and they probably definitely have ways of still not making information public.

[homegrown terror]

I wouldn't do the 'oh hay do u have terrorizst fyles on me' approach. It seems incredibly incriminating and they probably definitely have ways of still not making information public.

that's why i'm seeking out alternate means.

[Ele'ill]

that's why i'm seeking out alternate means.


I don't think it's possible to find out specifically how much interest intelligence agencies or local cops have in you or had in you in the past. You haven't been arrested but you might have hung around other people who they were interested in and noted you and that might be the extent of it or maybe it's on going. People stop associating with a 'movement' or they stop doing stuff and a year or more later they get raided.

[Raúl Duke]

I'm not sure if it has to do with FOIA or a different act/etc...

But I remember there was a time where lots of people in Puerto Rico checked to see if they had a file on them in the past. The FBI was very paranoid about independentistas till like the end of the 80s so they had a file on lots of people, even just for associating or fraternizing with independence activists and intellectuals. My mom I think had a file on her, during her college years she had professors and colleagues who supported independence and just for that she has a file; even though I think she more or less always has supported the pro-statehood side in elections.

Of course, there are different "file categories." For certain things, like applying to the JET Program, you have to get an FBI background check which is kinda like checking for a "file" (but it mostly focuses on explicitly criminal things instead of things of a political nature).

[IrishWorker]

....without putting your own neck on the chopping block. does anyone have a method of doing so? i'd just like to know how much the police/fbi know about me personally, for my own safety and that of my family.

EDIT: in case it's relevant, i've never been arrested, but i've been detained in catch-and-release actions at rallies on numerous occasions.

If you even have to ask then take it for granted they do.