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§ 605 of the PATRIOT act, as given in the form the White House wants written without a sunset (as if having this for only a few years would make it any better). "A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'empowered to make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence,or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

This raises a few questions. "Any offense against the United States,"? Who chooses. What rights of appeal does one have? What limits will be made against Habeas Corpus?

When I was a security guard we got an, all too brief, course on the powers we had to arrest (the same as any other citizen). If we had good reason to believe a person had committed a felony we could arrest someone (this only applies to Calif., if you want to make a citizens arrest I am not giving advice). But we were warned that unless we saw it, it was better to just it go.

Does reasonable grounds include the reports of informants? Can those informants be anonymous? Will the uniformed division be allowed to have plainclothes, and undercover, agents?