About two dozen residents from Edgewood and surrounding communities had a chance earlier this month to find out how the USA Patriot Act could affect their rights.

They learned why neighboring Wilkinsburg council passed a resolution last year calling for federal agencies to work through local government when taking actions under the Patriot Act.

"This is a first step to share information for residents to seek their own resolution from Edgewood Council," said Mary Hart, an Edgewood resident and an organizer of the meeting held on the topic.

Wilkinsburg is one of more than 350 communities across the country, including Pittsburgh, to pass similar resolutions.

Denise Edwards, a Wilkinsburg councilwoman, said her borough's resolution, "reasserted council's right to make [federal] agencies come through council and local magistrates with real evidence if they want to set up wiretaps, video cameras, gain the cooperation of local first responders such as police, fire and emergency services or examine resident records at libraries and other locations."

Edwards said Wilkinsburg council took up the question in response to three residents "who brought issues to our attention [at the same time] council was trying to reintroduce civil discourse into municipal and committee meetings. As we asked our own questions, we started to see that aspects of the Patriot Act seriously curtailed rights to discourse."

The resolution "gives something extra to hang your hat on," she said. "It helps local police not do the FBI's job."

Because of the measure, Wilkinsburg police officers can refuse certain requests from federal agents by saying the borough resolutions prevents them from doing it. Residents also can decline providing assistance and refer the agents to council members or the mayor.

"It slows down the federal agents, helps residents stand up and helps [council] know when residents are being harassed," Edwards added.

She called the Patriot Act "a bad piece of legislation" and said, "we need to think about more effective ways of defending ourselves from terrorist attacks."

One example Edwards cited was the frequently used railroad tracks that run through the middle of the borough.

"If something happened to a train," she said, "the act provides no resources, no assistance for local first responders to determine whether there's been an accident or a terrorist incident, and there's no budget anywhere to help first responders assist local residents."

Omar Slater, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union's board of directors and president of the Islamic Council of Greater Pittsburgh, said "resolutions like this reflect raised voices of residents." He also reviewed sections of the Patriot Act that he said related to encroachments on civil discourse and other liberties.

Saleh Waziruddin, chairman of the Islamic Council's anti-discrimination committee, said "every resolution passed is a sign to government that citizens are not going to put up with activities that are abusive and encroach on our rights."

Edgewood resident John Coulter, who had a copy of the complete Act that he said he downloaded from the Internet, encouraged people to "read the whole thing for themselves ... remembering that we are at war and terrorism is not just a local problem or an ethnic Arab problem, but an American and worldwide problem."

Phyllis Scherrer, a teacher in neighboring Swissvale, said she has been disappointed that Congress so quickly passed the measure, "when it could have be put out on the Internet for wide debate."

Since the act was passed 45 days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there has been continuing debate about the legislation's potential to encroach on civil liberties and individual rights. The ACLU has been active in defending individuals and groups who come under scrutiny from the act's provisions when it appears to them that rights have been violated.