(CBS/AP) Gov. Martin O'Malley said Friday that state police are obligated to investigate threats to public safety, but his administration will not use public resources to monitor anti-war and anti-death penalty groups.

Sen. Ben Cardin, meanwhile, called for a "full accounting" of federal, state and local surveillance following the release of state police documents showing undercover officers infiltrated meetings of peace and anti-capital punishment groups for more than a year, spending nearly 300 hours on surveillance.

"Our nation cannot allow police activity that is intended to discourage dissent by Americans who may disagree with certain government policies," said Cardin, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The governor noted state police are obligated to investigate threats to public safety, "but where there is no evidence of a potential public threat, illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing, all investigatory or intelligence gathering activities shall cease."

O'Malley released the statement a day after the Maryland chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released state police documents it obtained after suing the department.

The documents show undercover officers spent nearly 300 hours on surveillance. Police also included the name of at least one prominent peace activist in a federal database for tracking terrorists and drug dealers.

Cardin noted federal anti-terrorism guidelines and regulations expressly prohibit the collection or maintenance of criminal intelligence information about the political, religious or social views, associations, or activities of any individual or any group unless it directly relates to criminal activity.

One database entry in the documents describes a peace group's preparation for 2005 meetings on Iraqi war policy in Washington and Baltimore with Cardin, who was a congressman at the time, the senator noted.

Maryland state police Col. Terrence B. Sheridan said in a statement Thursday that his agency has never done anything illegal to citizens or groups that have exercised their right to free speech and assembly.

"Only when information regarding criminal activity is alleged will police continue to investigate leads to ensure the public safety," the statement said.

The Maryland ACLU sued last month, claiming the state police refused to release public documents about surveillance of peace activists. The suit claimed a state police intelligence unit monitored Baltimore peace groups that protested at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in 2004.

The documents show that for 14 months, the state police Homeland Security and Intelligence Division used covert agents to infiltrate the Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, a peace group, the Coalition to End the Death Penalty (CEDP), and the Committee to Save Vernon Evans, a death row inmate, the ACLU said.

The head of the ACLU chapter sent a letter to O'Malley on Thursday asking for an immediate end to the surveillance.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who chairs the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced that he will lead an investigation into the Maryland charges.

“I think that most people would be upset to know that police were spying on lawful citizens and infiltrating peaceful organizations, rather than chasing down real criminals," Kucinich said in a press statement. "At a minimum, such police spying is clearly a waste of taxpayer dollars and a diversion from the mission of protecting and serving the people. I want the subcommittee to determine how widespread these activities are and who ordered them."

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