University police probably acted within the law when officials used an undercover officer to infiltrate a student activist group, state legal experts say.

But area law enforcement officials and legal scholars disagree about whether the use of such tactics was proper.

“There are legitimate times when police agencies can use undercover investigations,” former state Attorney General Frank Kelley said Wednesday.

Kelley, Michigan’s top lawyer for 37 years before retiring in 1998, said many law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and area police, have operated extensive undercover operations within political groups - and all legally.

However, the use of such a covert operation at a university - a place where students and police have traditionally clashed - is probably a mistake, he said.

“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think that was a very good procedure on a college campus,” he said.

MSU police deployed an undercover officer more than a year ago to pose as a student and gather information about Students for Economic Justice, an officially registered student group.

In a statement released Friday to The State News, university police Assistant Chief Jim Dunlap said officials were concerned a May 2000 commencement speech by World Bank President James Wolfensohn could draw violent protests, echoing those that began Nov. 30, 1999, in Seattle and sprung up again in April 2000 in Washington, D.C.

Representatives of Students for Economic Justice deny their members are violent, although some were arrested for minor offenses at those protests.

In his statement, Dunlap said police found no wrongdoing. Department officials have since declined further comment about the investigation.

But Kelley said although police can usually operate such investigations legally, there must be a sufficient reason for concern before one is launched.

“It has to be used wisely and prudently,” he told The State News. “Your story hinges on whether it was a prudent use, and from the facts I know of, it’s not prudent.”

But Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III, who had not heard the details of the investigation, said an undercover officer has the right to go anywhere the public is allowed to go.

He defended the practice as an effective means to stop crime, and said well-trained officers are careful to stay within the boundaries of the law.

“They know where that line is and where the line is of what’s constitutional,” Dunnings said.

MSU President M. Peter McPherson has urged Students for Economic Justice to file a complaint with the Police and Public Safety Oversight Committee if group members feel they were wronged. The group has not yet met to decide whether to take such an action.

Even if objections are made that undercover tactics infringe on people’s rights, judges are most often inclined to side with police, said Ron Bretz, an associate professor at Cooley Law School.

“They have discretion and no court is going to check them on that,” said Bretz, a 1973 MSU graduate who spent 20 years as a public defender before becoming a criminal law and procedure professor at Cooley.

“Is it legal for police to do this? Yes. Is it legal to lie? Absolutely. They have to lie or they can’t do this.”

And although it appears there was nothing illegal in the activities of the MSU police from the known facts, Bretz said he remembers another time when police overstepped their bounds.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Michigan State Police assembled thousands of files about people believed to be involved in the anti-war movement. In 1976, the State Police’s “Red Squad” was declared unconstitutional and the files were opened to those in them.

It’s those days that worry Bretz about the tactics used today.

“What they’re doing now is the first step to what happened back then,” he said.

But Col. Michael Robinson, director of the Michigan State Police, said new privacy laws prevent police agencies from imposing on groups with unnecessary investigations and keeps those agencies from keeping extensive files like those of the Red Squad. The days of the 1960s are very different from current practices, he said.

“If you were gathering information of a ‘suspected subverted group’ and they met in a hotel room, you’d likely record the license plate numbers of every person staying at the hotel,” he said.

Now, Robinson said there must be a “reasonable suspicion or a growing belief that a criminal act will occur or be plotted” to investigate. If police don’t follow those guidelines, the public is likely to push for new laws to restrict officers’ authority.

“People as a general rule mistrust government and mistrust police,” he said, adding that such laws can also inhibit officers power to combat crimes.

Fortunately, not all police agencies have to resort to such tactics - Lansing police often count on state or federal law enforcement to watch political activist groups, said Lansing police Lt. Ray Hall.

Hall, whose department watches over the capital city of 114,000, said Lansing police officials have a “daily dialogue with state and federal agencies.”

“Our focus is primarily on drug enforcement and criminal gang activity,” he said.

But for those criminal investigations, using undercover officers can be an essential tool. In one of its most recent cases, Lansing police used undercover officers to break up a prostitution ring of teenage girls. And Hall said from his department’s successful investigations, he could see the value of using such tactics in other areas.

“Political groups for us are not as relevant as they might be to federal, state or even campus agencies,” he said.

Jeremy W. Steele can be reached at steelej7@msu.edu.