COURT: POLICE WRONGLY SEARCHED BUS

ALBANY, N.Y.-- The state's highest court threw out a man's drug
conviction Thursday, saying police had boarded a public bus to
question its riders simply because it came from New York City.

The 7-0 decision by the state Court of Appeals said police must act
on a legitimate tip or suspicious behavior before questioning riders.
Instead, deputies from the Albany County Sheriff's Department had
boarded a bus upon arrival in Albany to ask all 15 passengers to show
their identification, the court said.

Deputies said the 3:30 a.m. questioning of riders at the Albany bus
station on Jan. 23, 1997, was justified because the bus came from an
area with illegal drug activity and was the overnight bus. Officers
then observed the passengers for any suspicious behavior.

The inspector in charge said the technique, a form of geographic
profiling, is used widely nationally.

The defendant in the case, Rawle McIntosh, was arrested after cocaine
was found in a jacket next to him on the bus. He pleaded guilty and
was sentenced to a prison term of 8 years to life.

"The sole reason for boarding the bus, confronting passengers and
conducting this random suspicionless search was that the bus was
coming from New York City, a locale where drugs exist and 8 million
people live," wrote Judge George Bundy Smith for the court.

If the court approved such conduct, he wrote, "any person leaving New
York City on a bus or train would be subject to being stopped by the
police."

The public defender's office said there was no chance McIntosh could
face a trial now because the ruling essentially threw out all the
evidence. In making his guilty plea, he had reserved the right to
appeal the question of the legality of the stop.

The sheriff's department said the technique had resulted in more than
400 arrests over 10 years, but was discontinued late last year when
the late night buses from New York City to Buffalo discontinued their
stop in Albany.

"It's not really going to hurt us at all," said Inspector John Burke,
a veteran narcotics officer with the sheriff's department. "We just
have to alter some of our investigative techniques a bit."

Burke said other departments in New York state and in other states
use the same technique.