"Boston Airport Chief Denies Racial Profiling"

Friday, November 12, 2004

Airport Chief Denies Racial Profiling 
Troopers Don't Stop People Based On Race, Ethnicity, Naccara Says 
The Associated Press


BOSTON -- The top security official at Logan Airport said racial profiling
plays no part in procedures that allow police to stop and question travelers
if they behave suspiciously.

George N. Naccara, federal security director at Logan under the
Transportation Security Administration, denied the allegation in an America
Cilivil Liberties Union lawsuit that the security technique called "behavior
pattern recognition" encourages racial profiling.

Naccara said state troopers are trained not to stop people based on race or
ethnicity. 

"They make it very clear in the training that we're looking for
abnormalities in behavior, and they begin their thought process very
carefully," said Naccara.

"From what I've seen, they have very good training. They're very scrupulous
about being fair on this."

After terrorists boarded two jets at Logan on Sept. 11, hijacked them, and
flew them into the World Trade Center, officials promised and delivered a
security shakeup. Logan became the first airport in the country to meet a
federal mandate to have a completely automated system to screen every piece
of luggage.

In November 2002, Logan began the nation's first "behavior pattern
recognition" program, in which police stop and question passengers whose
behavior seems suspicious.

State police have insisted they do not stop people based on ethnicity or
race, but instead focus on their behavior, including loitering without
luggage, wearing heavy clothes on a hot day and watching security methods at
the airport.

But in a lawsuit filed on behalf of its own national coordinator for racial
profiling, King Downing, who alleges he was harassed by police at Logan last
year, the ACLU claims the technique "effectively condones and encourages"
racial and ethnic profiling.

Downing, who is black, said he left the gate area and was making a phone
call in the terminal when he was stopped by a state trooper who asked him
for identification. He declined, and was told to leave the airport. When he
tried to leave, he was stopped again, surrounded by four troopers and told
that he was under arrest for failing to produce identification.

Downing, an attorney, said that when he agreed to show his driver's license,
the troopers then demanded to see his airline ticket. After police inspected
his identification and travel documents, he was allowed to leave and no
charges were ever filed against him, he said.

"This program is another unfortunate example of the extent to which we are
being asked to surrender basic freedoms in the name of security," said John
Reinstein, legal director of the ACLU's Massachusetts chapter. "This allows
the police to stop anyone, any time, for any reason."

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, asks the court to
declare the screening system unconstitutional.

Massport released a statement Wednesday evening saying the behavior pattern
program is designed to ensure protection of civil rights, and said racial
profiling is not a part of behavior pattern recognition.

State police released a statement late Wednesday saying that state police
are "committed to protecting the constitutional civil rights of all
citizens."


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