DELAWARE COP CAMERAS DRAW FROWNS

WILMINGTON, Del. -- The Police Department's Corner Deployment Unit is known
as the "jump-out squad" for bursting out of vehicles to question and search
suspects. Its officers also do something else: snap photos of people they
stop, even those they don't arrest.

City officials defend the practice as a legal and effective part of fighting
drug dealing and street crime. Critics say it violates the constitutional
rights of innocent people.

In an era when surveillance cameras peer from buildings and parking lots,
courts have ruled that people can't expect privacy in public places. Civil
libertarians argue that police photographing people they don't arrest is a
different matter.

"There's no authority to forcibly photograph someone and enter them into a
database when they have committed no crime," said Barry Steinhardt of the
American Civil Liberties Union.

Wilmington Mayor James Baker describes such criticism as "blithering
idiocy," saying police take pains to protect the rights of law-abiding
citizens while targeting people "who are killing our neighborhoods, who are
killing our people."

Some media reports have compared the technique to "Minority Report," a
recent science fiction movie in which police identify criminals before they
commit crimes.

"It's not a Gestapo technique, it's not anything other than a progressive me
ans of policing an urban environment," police spokesman Cpl. Stephen
Martelli said.

Among other things, the photos can serve as proof that a person arrested for
loitering received other warnings. They also are kept as "possible evidence
for ongoing investigations," authorities said.

Police Chief Michael Szczerba said his department has taken photographs of
suspects for years without complaints.

It's "highly improbable" that innocent people were caught up in the stops,
he said.

City officials say 658 people were stopped and questioned between June, when
the jump-out squad's "Operation Bold Eagle" began, and last week. Among
them, 546 were arrested, and 708 charges were filed.

Police believe the other 112 are involved in criminal activity, even if
officers lacked enough evidence that day for an arrest.

Drewry Fennell, head of the ACLU's Delaware chapter, argues that shouldn't
matter.

"Their criminal histories are not relevant to their rights to move freely
about on the street," Fennell said.

The ACLU is considering a lawsuit but, so far, no one has come forward with
a formal complaint about being detained and photographed, he said.

City officials have met with ACLU, NAACP and Urban League representatives to
hear their concerns, and another meeting is set Wednesday.

In crime-troubled neighborhoods, some residents have welcomed the
camera-toting police.

"I would rather have innocent people's pictures taken than innocent people
shot," Barbara Washam said during a rally last week to support the police.

In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Terry vs. Ohio that police may stop
and frisk people if they have reasonable suspicion they're engaged in
criminal activity.

The state attorney general and chief federal prosecutor for Delaware agreed
Wilmington police appear to be acting within the law.

But others disagree, saying the Terry decision allows police only to briefly
detain and question suspects.

City officials say officers exercise discretion.

On a recent Friday night at a corner reeking of alcohol, the squad frisked
and questioned six men while investigating suspected drug dealing.

Patrol Officer George Collins questioned one of the men, then pulled a
digital camera from his pocket and asked if he could take his picture.

"Can I ask why you're doing this to me?" replied the man, who showed ID and
told police he just was walking to the store.

"If you're not a criminal, you don't have anything to worry about," Collins
answered. "It's for future reference."

Satisfied with the identification, Collins pocketed his camera without
snapping a photo.

"He was a resident, so I gave him the option," Collins explained.