LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The tracking program for suspicious activity reports known as SARs has some concerned about information the LAPD gathers and stores.

The system is part of the department’s anti-terrorism effort, but there are fears of abuse, according to Yaman Salahi with the American Civil Liberties Union.

“The SARs program can lead to potential civil liberties and civil rights violations and invade the privacy of people engaged in perfectly lawful activities,” Salahi told KNX1070’s Ed Mertz.

Despite lawsuit threats, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said names and personal information the department gathers will be kept.

“If you were to purge the names and the identities… there would be no way that we could check on the people that we need to maintain tight control of,” he said.