December 05, 2001
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Racial Profiling or
Good Police Work?
A s s t. P c b l is h e »
Michael Leighton
Í B I T O I - in - C H I C F .r ilL I S H ll
Charles H Washington
C o n
E d i t o »
E
d it o
»
Larry' J. Jackson, Sr.
Joy Ramos
B ts is is s M a n a se »
Gary Ann Taylor
C » e a r i r e D i » e c r o »
Paul Neufeldt
Police nationwide divided over
whether to cooperate with federal
interviews of Middle Eastern men
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Police departments nationwide are breaking ranks over Justice
Department efforts to interview 5,000 Middle Eastern men, with
officers far beyond Oregon concerned about racial profiling.
Others are astounded that their colleagues wouldn’t cooperate with
federal agents.
Local law enforcement balked at the University of Michigan,
and in San Jose and San Mateo in California. There has also been
some hesitation elsewhere.
Others scoff at the reservations. "That’s not racial profiling,
that’s good investigative work,” said Chief Michael Chitwood in
Portland, Maine.
After the Sept. 11 hijackings, the federal government detained
some 1,100 people in an attempt to track down terrorist networks
and prevent future attacks.
Last month, the Justice Department announced plans to inter
view 5,000 young male foreigners from the Middle East and
countries where terrorists are known to operate. Federal agents
were told to work with local and state police to find people for
questioning.
In Oregon, police in Portland and Corvallis — have refused to
cooperate.
In Fremont, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich., police are accompa
nying federal agents when the interviews are requested or con
ducted, hoping to ensure that those questioned don’t feel unduly
pressured.
In Denver, the federal government is pursuing interviews on its
own.
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The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition,
a local anti-war organization, expressed strong
backing for the Portland Police Department’s
decision to refuse to assist the federal call for
ethnic profiling.
“W e’re very encouraged to see that our
police department is not willing to trash our
constitutional freedoms,” said Candace Larson
o f the PPRC. “John Ashcroft may want an
America without the Bill o f Rights, but fortu
nately there seems to be some people in the
Portland Police Department who understand
that you don’t fight terrorism with racism.”
“You can use personnel and equipment just
to go out and random ly interview people
solely on immigration,” said Andrew Kirkland,
an assistant police chief.
Portland is the first police departm ent to
refuse to cooperate wi th the attorney general ’ s
request.
The PPRC thanks the city o f Portland for
resisting the attorney general ’s continued ero
sion o f civil rights, especially the civil rights o f
immigrants, and encourages the city to con
tinue to protect our civil rights from the en
croachm ents o f the FBI and other federal
police agencies.
A
"Whether this is racial profiling or not I suppose depends on
your viewpoint,” said Chief Craig Steckler in Fremont, home to the
nation’s largest Afghan-American community. “I personally don’t
think we have any terrorists living in Fremont, nor do 1 think we
have people living in Fremont who know terrorists.’
The FBI identified six local men to interview, and though
Steckler said he’s sure FBI agents are well-trained, he wants a local
officer to be present, too. If federal officials aren’t respectful, it
could jeopardize local relationships, he said.
For San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley, the decision was
clear: "We don’t have any legal authority to question people. Unless
they could articulate some suspicious activity, no, we wouldn’t
participate.”
In Ann Arbor, “I’m reserving judgment on whether or not my
cops will participate,” Chief Dan Oates said. Instead, he’s arrang
ing a meeting between the federal agents and the local Arab-
American community, hoping to ease fears and allow for inter
views to go forward.
Other police are pursuing interviews sought by the FBI, and
question the logic o f those who refuse.
“I think the leaders of those agencies who decide not to assist
should reassess what kind of career path they should take,” said
Baltimore Det. Gary McLhinney.
“Nothing that they’ve asked us to do constitutes a violation of
any law,” said Lt. Horace Frank with the Los Angeles Police
Department. “No one is stopping every Arab or every Middle
Easterner or detaining them.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and some Arab-American
groups have criticized the federal effort and applauded police
departments that refused to cooperate.
“These interviews are inherently coercive,” said Anthony
Romero, the ACLU’s executive director. “History will honor these
departments and their leaders for their principles, professionalism
and independence.”
For the interviews, the federal government is taking different
approaches in different parts of the country. Letters went out
inviting people to the interviews in Detroit, while in Grand Rapids
some agents have gone door-to-door trying to make contact.
“These people are not suspects,” said Suellen Pierce, a spokes
woman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Charlotte, N.C. “They are
simply people we want to talk to because they might have helpful
information."
In Portland, Maine, police last week began interviews with 22
men identified by the FBI — all of them with licenses to transport
hazardous material, Chitwood said.
“It’s all voluntary. We’re not bringing anybody out from their
house. Just knocking on their door, 'I ’m detective so-and-so,”’
Chitwood said. “I really have a tough time when people say racial
profiling.”
He and Frank in Los Angeles likened the interviews to any
investigation of a crime: visit the community, talk to the people
where the bank robbery occurred, ask people what they’ve seen
and heard.
“Questioning or interviewing people of a certain age — yes, the
people they’re talking about are Middle Easterners — but it’s males
of a certain age who entered the country at a certain date, in a certain
time frame,” Frank said.
“The reasons we have those elements are because of what they
found out about the hijackers. You have specific things. That’s not
racial profiling."
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For the interviews, the federal gov
ernment is taking different approaches
in different parts o f the country. Letters
went out inviting people to the inter
views in Detroit, while in Grand Rapids
some agents have gone door-to-door
trying to make contact.
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