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Occupy Protest Monitored By U.S. Conference Of Mayors, Emails Show

After denying that they are coordinating responses to Occupy Wall Street, theU.S. Conference of Mayors recently surveyed city administrations across the country about the movement.

In late November, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the District of Columbia mayor’s office received a request to update its answers to the survey. The questions to city officials appeared to elicit profiles of Occupy activists and answers that could help show the activists as a drain on resources.

The mayor’s conference asked via the emailed survey: What are the estimated Occupy-related costs? What are the major issues relating to Occupy events?Has the Occupy membership changed and if so “describe those involved in the movement how they’ve changed in terms of who they are and what their intentions for the demonstrations are.”

In the survey, the organization also called on city administrations to share tactics. “Please describe any strategies or tactics your city is employing in responding to Occupy-related events, including an assessment of their effectiveness if possible.”

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has quietly led efforts to coordinate city responses to the Occupy Wall Street movement, the records show. These documents — which comprise emails to local D.C. officials — appear to contradict previous statements in which mayors denied any sort of group strategy sessions.

In a Nov. 10 email, Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director for the conference, hyped a follow-up conference call led by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Cochran wrote that the call “will enable more mayors and police chiefs from across the country to participate in the discussion, sharing information about the situation in their cities, their concerns, and the strategies that are working.”

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