Report Alleges Police Use Secret Evidence Collected By Feds To Make Arrests

Branches of America's federal law enforcement and intelligence services may be secretly helping state and local police arrest suspected criminals every day in ways that raise fundamental questions about defendants' civil and due process rights, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report.

The report makes the case that federal law enforcers, police, and local prosecutors are concealing the origins of evidence and intelligence in scores of criminal cases, especially drug arrests. The intelligence may include National Security Agency mass surveillance programs, wiretaps, computer and phone surveillance and physical surveillance.

Defendants, the report says, often have no idea about the underlying investigative tactics and constitutionally dubious methods — including warrantless searches — that may have been used in gathering evidence against