PROFILING NOT ALWAYS RACIAL, POLICE SAY

Middle Eastern Man On Street Raised Suspicions

When an unfamiliar Middle Eastern man walked down Capitol Street in
Charleston last week, something about him alerted an on-duty police
officer. The officer couldn't identify what made him feel suspicious, but
he was. He watched the man and even tried to snap a picture of him, but
didn't approach him.

Charleston Police Chief Jerry Riffe and the officer involved, Patrolman
Duke Jordan, said this is not a case of racial profiling, but rather is an
example of profiling, an acceptable police practice.

There is a difference between racial profiling, taking police action solely
based on someone's race, and profiling, Riffe said. The difference lies in
whether the police officer had suspicions that were based on things other
than race before taking action.

Riffe said in these times of heightened security we need to give the police
a bit of leeway.

"I recognize Americans as Americans," Riffe said. "I have to balance that
with: we as a nation at the highest state of alert. When we go to that
level, I can't be in the position of just making the police out there
afraid to be suspicious themselves," Riffe said.

"A good cop is suspicious of so many things that an average person isn't,"
he said.

The Rev. Matthew Watts of the Grace Bible Church in Charleston isn't so
confident that the heightened awareness of different looking people isn't a
subtle form of racism.

"We have biases undoubtedly exacerbated in situations like this," he said.

"Any time a people is visually different, if they speak a different
language, it is easier to single them out," he said.

Given the current suspicious climate of the country, we would do well to
create a forum in which to deal with our fears and phobias about race,
Watts said.

The Charleston Police Department has issued no orders that people of Middle
Eastern descent should be looked upon as suspicious in any way, Riffe said.
And the department has not received any complaints from Middle Easterners
who feel they been unfairly targeted, Riffe said.

Patrolman Jordan said soon after he spotted the Middle Eastern man --
dressed in a coat on a warm afternoon last week, with his hand in his
breast pocket -- a local man came up to him and pointed the Middle
Easterner out, saying he looked suspicious.

Jordan says he is not generally suspicious of certain racial groups --
Jordan himself is African-American. "Our Arab folks around here, they don't
all stand out to me. It's the first person since this whole incident (Sept.
11) who has stood out to me."

When pressed on what exactly stood out to him, Jordan found it hard to pin
down.

"He just caught my attention. It wasn't just because he was from the Middle
East, it's just little things. Little things. His build, the way he carried
himself," Jordan said.

Jordan said he wouldn't stop someone or take police action just based on a
funny feeling or suspicion, but it would raise his level of awareness.
Letting suspicions raise flags of awareness is part of profiling, said Sgt.
Steve Neddo of the Metro Drug Unit. The unit uses profiling constantly, he
said.

Not all divisions of the police department use profiling, but it is used
extensively in the drug unit because they are pro-active in their approach,
Neddo said.

The Criminal Investigation Division, which is mostly reactive in their
investigations, doesn't use profiling as much, said Lt. Mark Carlson of the
division.

Neddo said, "Profiling is more than one thing. It's a combination of a lot
of things."

"A lot of it you can't put a finger on. All we have is suspicion. A lot of
people don't understand this," he said.

"Then we have the indicators."

An indicator is when a person in question does something that would be
expected of a criminal committing a crime. He said several years ago a
group of people were coming to Charleston from Toledo and selling drugs.
Each time a member of the group would come to town they would stay in the
same hotel, show up at the same time and pay cash for the room in small
bills. So when someone came in from Toledo at that specific time and stayed
in that hotel and paid for their room in small bills, police became suspicious.

"Then we ask questions. You're constantly building up to have a little bit
more," he said.