GREYHOUND, GUARDS HERE DIFFER ON WHAT TO DO WITH RIDERS TOTING DRUGS

What Should Be Done When Private Security Guards Find Small Quantities Of
Drugs?

If security guards catch you carrying drugs at Nashville's Greyhound Bus
Lines terminal, you will be turned over to police, no matter the amount
confiscated, the company says.

But that's not what a security guard told a Nashville magistrate Thursday.

Testifying in the case of a 19-year-old on his way to the Bonnaroo music
festival who was accused of having psychedelic mushrooms at the bus
station, security officer Dustin Doyal said the guards at the bus station
don't call police in all instances.

And although company officials told The Tennessean that drugs are always
turned over to police, Doyal testified that the security guards don't turn
over drugs unless a "large amount" is found.

Yesterday, another security officer at the bus station said the guards
flush some of the drugs down the toilet and that passengers are allowed to
continue traveling on their routes.

For their part, Metro police say they will prosecute cases brought to them
by the security company, but that they do not oversee the screening of
passengers or the seizure of drugs.

The apparent discrepancy between company policy and actual practice came to
light after security guards accused Samuel Martin Brown of Green Bay, Wis.,
of carrying five plastic bags with a total of 19.1 grams of psilocybin
mushrooms, which can produce a psychedelic "trip" or high when eaten or smoked.

Brown was nabbed as part of random screenings that the guards conduct
routinely. Passengers on at least 13 buses are checked every day, Sean
Sullivan, who works with Doyal as a security officer at the terminal, told
The Tennessean.

Both Brown and Doyal, a security guard with Nashville-based Alert Security
& Patrol, told a judge that others with smaller amounts of marijuana were
let go without charges.

Brown was arrested by Metro police on a charge of felony possession of
drugs and was in Metro Jail on $5,000 bond.

A spokeswoman for Greyhound yesterday said the bus company has a
"zero-tolerance" policy. Security guards are supposed to contact law
enforcement after any screening that reveals an illegal item, no matter the
quantity, said Kim Plaskett, a spokeswoman for Greyhound Bus Lines.

She said Greyhound trains the private security companies that work in the
bus terminals. If police are not called when a security guard finds drugs,
that would be a violation of Greyhound's procedures, Plaskett said.

"We do our best to ensure that our security procedures are done according
to the way we establish them," she said. "If we are notified to the
contrary, we will look into it and determine what actions need to be done
at that time."

Thursday morning in Night Court, Brown, a coffee shop employee in
Wisconsin, said he was tricked into turning over the drugs.

"I was completely honest," Brown said. "They asked if we had any drugs, and
they said they would throw them out, not prosecute, and let us go." Brown
said the police were called as soon as he turned over the mushrooms.

Doyal told the night court commissioner that the security guards only call
police when they come across "large quantities" of drugs.

The commissioner asked Doyal to define what a large quantity would be, and
he said the guards call police when there could be a felony charge.

According to a Metro police affidavit, Brown told the security guards that
he was on his way to Manchester, Tenn., the site of the music festival, and
was possibly going to trade or sell the mushrooms once he got there.

Security officer Sullivan, who was not working the day Brown was arrested,
said yesterday at the bus terminal that security officers do not trick
passengers into handing over drugs.

When small amounts of drugs are found during a screening, two security
guards and a Greyhound manager at the Nashville terminal flush the drugs
down the toilet, Sullivan said.

A security guard records what is disposed of in a logbook. Anybody who
refuses to have his or her bags searched is not allowed to continue on the
bus, he said.

If security guards uncover a "large amount" of drugs - Sullivan said the
security guards don't have a set definition - the guard calls police.

Sullivan said the Nashville security business had been operating under
rules presented by managers at the Greyhound station. He said he was not
aware of any policy that requires security guards to call police any time
drugs are found.

Private Guards Can Do Searches, Lawyer Says

David Raybin, a Nashville attorney and legal scholar versed in Tennessee
constitutional law, said private security guards can legally search
passengers for drugs at the bus station.

Just as at the airports, state law requires a sign written in English to be
prominently displayed so that passengers know they are consenting to the
searches, Raybin said.

A Tennessean reporter did not see such a sign present at the Nashville
station, although passengers are notified via loudspeaker just before each
search, a security guard said.

Raybin said the bus station was not required by law to report every crime.
Only cases involving child abuse must be reported to authorities.

Still, there could be problems with selective prosecution if some are let
go while others are turned over to police.

And when security guards take possession of the drugs, even for a short
trip to a bathroom to flush them, the guards at that point would be
violating drug possession laws, Raybin said.

Davidson County District Attorney Torry Johnson said he would expect the
issues over the legality of the searches and how they occurred and issues
involving the handling of contraband to be addressed in court. "These will
be issues that we ourselves will be concerned about," Johnson said.
"Generally speaking, private security guards operate in sort of a gray area
in that the constitutional protections generally are designed to protect
citizens from government authority."

Johnson said he could not comment on specific cases.

Defense attorneys working on a drug case would look closer at issues
involving storage and handling of evidence at the bus station, said Ross
Alderman, the Davidson County public defender.

He added that it appeared that private security guards could rightfully
question the passengers.

"If folks are actually private, most of the constitutional rights we
conventionally think about in the Fourth Amendment do not necessarily
apply," Alderman said.