[BrinWorld] precrime squad in Del: more pigs needing killing

[Major Variola (ret)]

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The city police department's Corner Deployment Unit
is known as the "jump-out squad" for bursting out of vehicles to
question and search suspects. Its officers also are known for something
else: snapping photos of suspects they stop, even those they don't
arrest.

City officials defend the practice as a legal and effective part of
fighting drug dealing and street crime.

Critics say it violates the constitutional rights of innocent people.

In an era when surveillance cameras peer from buildings and parking
lots, courts have ruled that people can't expect privacy in public
places. Civil libertarians argue that police photographing people they
don't arrest is a different matter.

"There's no authority to forcibly photograph someone and enter them into
a database when they have committed no crime," said Barry Steinhardt,
associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I'm not aware of any other municipal police department that has engaged
in this type of behavior," he said.

Wilmington Mayor James Baker describes such criticism as "blithering
idiocy," saying police take pains to protect the rights of law-abiding
citizens while targeting people "who are killing our neighborhoods, who
are killing our people."

City officials deny police are photographing individuals they believe
are likely to commit crimes. Some media reports have compared the
technique to "Minority Report," a recent science fiction movie in which
police identify criminals before they commit crimes.

"It's not a Gestapo technique, it's not anything other than a
progressive means of policing an urban environment," said police
spokesman Cpl. Stephen Martelli.

Among other things, the photos can serve as proof that a person arrested
for loitering received other warnings. They also are kept as "possible
evidence for ongoing investigations," authorities said.

Police Chief Michael Szczerba said his department has taken photographs
of suspects for years without complaints.

It's "highly improbable" that innocent people were caught up in the
stops, he said.

According to city officials, 658 people were stopped and questioned
between June, when the jump-out squad's "Operation Bold Eagle" began,
and last week. Among them, 546 were arrested, and 708 charges were
filed.

Police believe the other 112 are involved in criminal activity, even if
officers didn't find enough evidence that day to arrest them.

Drewry Fennell, executive director of the ACLU's Delaware chapter,
argues that shouldn't matter.

"Their criminal histories are not relevant to their rights to move
freely about on the street," Fennell said.

The ACLU is considering a lawsuit but, so far, no one has come forward
with a formal complaint, he said.

City officials have met with ACLU, NAACP and Urban League
representatives to hear their concerns, and another meeting is scheduled
Wednesday.

In crime-troubled neighborhoods, some residents have welcomed the
camera-toting police.

"I would rather have innocent people's pictures taken than innocent
people shot," said Barbara Washam, who joined a rally last week to
support the police.

Mayor Baker said the photo policy doesn't violate the Constitution or
the U.S. Supreme Court's 1968 decision in Terry v. Ohio that police may
stop and frisk people if they have reasonable suspicion they are engaged
in criminal activity.

The state attorney general and chief federal prosecutor for Delaware
agreed that Wilmington police appear to be acting within the law.

But others disagree, saying the Terry decision allows police only to
briefly detain and question suspects.

"They can't use Terry as a pretext to go out and gather a photographic
database of suspects," said professor Phyllis Bookspan, who teaches
constitutional criminal procedure at Widener University.

City officials say officers exercise discretion.

On a recent Friday night at a corner reeking of alcohol, the squad
frisked and questioned six men while investigating suspected drug
dealing.

Patrol Officer George Collins questioned one of the men, then pulled a
digital camera from his pocket and asked if he could take his picture.

"Can I ask why you're doing this to me?" replied the man, who showed
identification and told police he just was walking to the store.

"If you're not a criminal, you don't have anything to worry about,"
Collins answered. "It's for future reference."

Satisfied with the identification, Collins pocketed his camera without
snapping a photo.

"He was a resident, so I gave him the option," Collins explained.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-police-photos0921sep21(0,7774923).story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines

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