POLICE CALL DOCUMENT ON PROFILING A 'TRAGIC MISTAKE'

As reported on WISC-Channel 3 Friday night, a top Madison police official
said a document recommending racial profiling and released to area hotel
workers was a "tragic mistake."

Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force Commander Lt. Bill Housley told
Channel 3 a police document, given to employees at 10 or 20 hotels last
week, was "repugnant" and "offensive." He apologized for the document,
which suggested using race and nationality to identify drug dealers. It was
mistakenly distributed, he said. The document warned hotel workers to
suspect guests from Miami and Orlando, Fla., as drug dealers, as well as
guests from Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico. Guests dressed like "outlaw
motorcycle gang members" were also potential drug dealers, according to the
document.

"The individuals who handed this document out were well intended, and it's
unfortunate they didn't read what they handed out," Housley said. "They
believed they were handing out a different document."

Housley said the document that was handed out may have been originally
distributed during the early 1990s. It was revised in the mid-1990s.

A new set of guildelines recommends observing behavior consistent with "the
distribution of illicit drugs," according to Housley.