What Is Operation TIPS?

THE JUSTICE Department is not saying much about the Terrorism Information and Prevention System -- otherwise known as Operation TIPS -- which is due to begin as a pilot program later this summer. Apparently the only public information about the program, in fact, is on a government Web site, which describes it as "a nationwide program giving millions of American truckers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, utility employees, and others a formal way to report suspicious terrorist activity." Operation TIPS will, in the pilot stage, involve a million workers, who, "in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to serve as extra eyes and ears for law enforcement." It will offer them "training . . . in how to look out for suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity." It will also provide "a formal way to report" that activity "through a single and coordinated toll-free number." This description, which is essentially all we know about the program, poses more questions than it answers.

Public vigilance is a good thing, and so is encouraging citizens to alert authorities to terrorist activity. It makes sense to educate people who work at potential targets or at places where lethal cargo may be smuggled. But having the government recruit informants among letter carriers and utility workers -- people who enter the homes of Americans for reasons unrelated to law enforcement -- is an entirely different matter. Americans should not be subjecting themselves to law enforcement scrutiny merely by having cable lines installed, mail delivered or meters read. Police cannot routinely enter people's houses without either permission or a warrant. They should not be using utility workers to conduct surveillance they could not lawfully conduct themselves.

From the sketchy descriptions of the program so far, it is impossible to determine with any precision what the government is intending. Is TIPS to be principally focused on cargo shipping or on people in their homes? What sort of home activities will the government be urging workers to report to authorities? And what incentives, if any, will be used to encourage volunteers? Nor is it clear whether the program will be effective. It is easy to imagine how such a program might produce little or no useful information but would flood law enforcement with endless suspicions that would divert authorities from more promising investigative avenues. A White House official told us that the program will be focused more on suspicious activities around neighborhoods than inside homes. And a Justice Department spokeswoman says that the program is still "in its early planning stages." The administration owes a fuller explanation before launch day.