FOREST SERVICE DIRECTIVE IN MENDOCINO ASKS OFFICERS TO INTERROGATE HISPANICS

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal officers were ordered to interrogate
Hispanics in a Mendocino National Forest marijuana eradication effort even
if no evidence of the drug was found in their cars.

A U.S. Forest Service supervisor told his officers in a directive that, "If
a vehicle stop is conducted and no marijuana is located and the vehicle has
Hispanics inside at a minimum we would like all individuals FI'd (field
interrogated)." The biweekly Sacramento Valley Mirror newspaper obtained
the directive.

Forest Service officials said the directive should not have singled out
Hispanics and denied that officers were told to use racial profiling.

The language was deleted from the directive Wednesday night, said Phebe
Brown, public affairs officer for Mendocino National Forest.

Officers have since been told to "apply the stop-action across the board to
whomever would be stopped in any kind of a vehicle for probable cause," she
said.

The effort began Oct. 8 and will end Oct. 14, according to Jerry Moore,
special agent-in-charge of the region for the forest service. He said it
came in response to an increase in marijuana cultivation in national parks
that law enforcement agencies tie to Mexican nationals. The Mendocino
National Forest is some 140 miles north of San Francisco.

Silvia Bueno of the Chicano Action Center said she was not surprised by the
news.

"Sadly, but true, it's normal that they stereotype Latinos or African
Americans," she said. "It's sort of a stereotype that Latinos are involved
in drugs."

More than 13 percent of residents in Glenn, Tehama and Mendocino counties,
are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 1998 estimate.

Moore called the inclusion of race an "innocent mistake that shouldn't have
been put in there in that way." He suggested that the order could have said
"a vehicle stop with probable cause would be FI'd with normal procedure."

A field interrogation is an interview by an officer to get the
identification of the driver, Moore said. He said officers have to be able
to say why they pulled over a car to ask the driver questions.

Moore said the directive was written by a supervising officer.

"We have already advised him that this is incorrect," he said. "His motive
was one of officer and public safety because of issues we have had. It will
not happen again."

Moore said he had not heard any complaints from officers who received the
directive. He said he did not believe the officers assigned to the
operation were Hispanic.

Both Moore and Brown vehemently denied that the Forest Service engages in
racial profiling.

"Absolutely not. No way," Moore said. "We do not condone any racial
profiling or profiling in our operations, period."

He said that including race in the directive was a mistake.

"We target criminal activity, not any particular group," he said.

Laurie Tapia-Piozet, Region 5 director of civil rights for the forest, did
not immediately return a phone call by The Associated Press.