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- <text id=89TT1004>
- <title>
- Apr. 17, 1989: Judging A Book By Its Cover
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Apr. 17, 1989 Alaska
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- LAW, Page 52
- Judging a Book by Its Cover
- </hdr><body>
- <p>Drug-courier profiles get a favorable nod from the court
- </p>
- <p> When Andrew Sokolow approached a United Airlines counter in
- Hawaii five years ago to begin a flight to Miami, he aroused
- immediate suspicion. First he looked and acted nervous. Then he
- plunked down $2,100 from a bulging wad of $20 bills to buy
- round-trip tickets for himself and a companion. He and his
- friend did not check their luggage but chose to carry it on
- board. And, as investigators discovered, Sokolow used an
- assumed name and stayed in Miami only 48 hours. In short, his
- actions matched those in the behavior profiles used by the Drug
- Enforcement Administration to spot would-be drug traffickers.
- When he returned to Honolulu, DEA agents arrested Sokolow and
- searched his bags, which contained 1,063 grams of cocaine.
- </p>
- <p> Last week, by a vote of 7 to 2, the U.S. Supreme Court
- upheld Sokolow's detention on drug charges, in an opinion that
- granted federal agents broad discretion to use "drug-courier
- profiles" to question and search travelers at airports. Writing
- for the court, Chief Justice William Rehnquist conceded that
- Sokolow's behavior could have been "consistent with innocent
- travel." But "taken together," his actions elicited "reasonable
- suspicion." Concluded Rehnquist: "The fact that these factors
- may be set forth in a `profile' does not somehow detract from
- their evidentiary significance." Dissenting Justice Thurgood
- Marshall saw things quite differently. An agent's "reflexive
- reliance" on a profile, he wrote, is likely to subject
- "innocent individuals to unwarranted police harassment."
- Drug-enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Customs Service,
- insist that drug profiles are meant only to inform and advise
- agents and that actual arrests depend on the individual
- professional judgments of officers. Officials deny the documents
- are stereotypical portraits of disfavored groups. "They're more
- of a mental checklist," says Harry Myers, chief of DEA's
- criminal-law section. Others are not so sure. "After 23 years
- in customs law, you notice that inspectors look for certain
- things," says Los Angeles attorney Leonard Fertman. "If you're
- coming from Central America without a camera or luggage and you
- have a beard, you may spend more time being questioned than
- another person."
- </p>
- <p> Beyond providing guidance to agents, drug profiles also
- catalog the latest nationwide arrest trends. They are
- constantly updated to keep up with the fertile imaginations of
- smugglers. Techniques have ranged from hiding drugs in objects
- -- like suitcases, plaques and aerosol cans -- to concealing
- them on the person. "I once had an innocent-looking Canadian
- couple in their 60s come back from a Jamaica holiday wearing
- body wraps containing 10 lbs. of hashish," recalls Miami
- Customs supervisory inspector Robert Hessler. Some couriers have
- been found with contraband stuffed in body orifices, others
- with cocaine-filled condoms in their stomachs. "Nothing is
- beyond what people will do," says Los Angeles Customs director
- John Heinrich, "even putting drugs in a baby's diaper and
- carrying the child through."
- </p>
- <p> Faced with such tactics and a surge in air travel,
- drug-enforcement agencies have beefed up their cloak-and-dagger
- operations. They have sent out "rovers," undercover agents
- dressed in anything from blazing Bermuda shorts to sleazy T
- shirts, to hang around airports. They have also trained
- friendly-looking dogs, like cairn terriers and cocker spaniels,
- to sniff out suspects by amiably sitting down beside them. In
- fact, it was a narcotics-sniffing dog that helped clip Andrew
- Sokolow's wings after he was detained in Honolulu. The canine
- cop, Donker, found the drug courier's stash hidden in his
- trendy Louis Vuitton travel bag.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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