CRITICS PROTEST ANTI-DRUG TACTICS BUT DEL. POLICE SAY DATABASE,
SURVEILLANCE HELP CUT CRIME

In drug-plagued neighborhoods of Wilmington, Del., it's become a nighttime
routine: Police "jump out" squads descend on a street corner, round up a
few suspected dealers and cart them off to jail.

But then the cops go a step further: They detain others in the area for up
to two hours, take digital photographs of them, get their names and other
details, and then put the information in a database to use in future
investigations.

The new database is part of an increasingly aggressive anti-crime effort in
Wilmington that has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups. It also
has thrust the city of 73,000 to the forefront of a national debate over
whether law enforcement's use of such technology violates citizens' privacy.

Like several cities, Wilmington has embraced a range of surveillance
techniques to try to make its streets safer. Video cameras monitor downtown
corridors, and cameras at intersections photograph the license plates of
red-light runners.

In troubled neighborhoods, police have asked residents to sign affidavits
waiving their Fourth Amendment right to refuse a search of their property,
so officers without search warrants can nab drug dealers who hide on front
porches, in laundry rooms and in apartment buildings.

The affidavit plan did not raise many objections -- or much interest --
when it was introduced in June. Only two residents have signed such forms.

But the camera-toting squads that began that month quickly drew fire.
Critics say spying on residents and keeping a database of "potential
criminals" invades privacy and tramples the presumption of innocence.

"The 'jump out' squads are the tactic of rounding up the usual suspects,"
says Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program for
the national American Civil Liberties Union in New York City. "They are
stopping, searching and putting into a database photographs of people whose
only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's bad law
enforcement, and it's bad for civil liberties."

Wilmington City Councilman Theo Gregory, a public defender who opposes the
tactic, says the brief detentions amount to "guilt by association."

City officials who support the database program and other surveillance
techniques say they have helped to lower Wilmington's crime rate at a time
when many cities are seeing crime rise. The officials also say police
dragnets in high-crime areas rarely snag innocent people.

Wilmington Mayor James Baker and Police Chief Michael Szczerba, who
oversees 289 officers, say the approach has contributed to an 8% drop in
major crimes such as homicides, burglaries, robberies, rapes and assaults
this year, compared with 2001. Shootings, however, were up 40% during the
first six months of this year. Through June, there were 49 shootings,
compared with 35 at the same time in 2001.

Szczerba says the people who are detained almost always are involved in the
drug trade, perhaps as "touters" who stand in the street to drum up
business, or as lookouts for dealers. Officers may not arrest such people
if they do not catch them doing anything illegal, but the officers may
detain them for up to two hours to gather intelligence.

The mayor's office says police have detained 588 people since the corner
deployments began in June. Of those, 471 have been arrested.

The other 117 were not arrested but, like those who were, had their names
and photos put into the police database. City officials say 84 of those who
were not arrested had at least three felony convictions.

"If you come into our city to take in a ballgame or dine at a restaurant or
go to a theater, you likely won't know about these corner patrols,"
Szczerba says. "But if you come to sell drugs or drink alcohol on the
corner or just be a general nuisance, you're going to see us."

U.S. courts have held that people in public places have no reasonable
expectation of privacy and may be photographed without their knowledge.
Innovations such as the digital-photo databases could bring a new round of
legal challenges, Steinhardt says.

Wilmington's database represents the latest turn in a national movement in
which cities, after nearly a decade of historically low crime rates, are
turning to advances in surveillance technology to try to curb what many
officials view as inevitable increases in crime.

More than a dozen U.S. cities use surveillance cameras. Los Angeles has
motion-sensitive cameras in high-crime areas to discourage dumping,
graffiti and crime. When a sensor is triggered, the camera takes a picture
and plays a recording: "We will use this photograph to prosecute you. Leave
now."

Virginia Beach and Tampa monitor public areas with video cameras linked to
sophisticated software that allows authorities to quickly compare the
facial features of those who are taped. Federal police in Washington have
put surveillance cameras on national monuments. Pittsburgh monitors its
city pools with digital video cameras that provide live feeds that can be
monitored remotely by computer.

In Wilmington, more than 100 surveillance cameras have scanned downtown
streets since April 2001. Most of the cameras were installed by private
businesses and corporations, but they are linked to a network of 13 cameras
on public land that can send live video feeds to police dispatchers.

A private security company monitors the cameras for 16 hours a day to track
suspicious activity, Szczerba says.

City officials say the cameras have had some success in tracking criminals.
Officials from a merchants' group that helped to sponsor the cameras held a
news conference in April 2001 to show video of two men who allegedly stole
newspapers from a vending machine. The cameras tracked the suspects as they
carried off the papers in a shopping cart until police drove up to arrest
them, the local newspaper reported.

Earlier last year, the city put 10 cameras at intersections to catch
red-light runners. By May 2002, the cameras had been responsible for 25,000
tickets.

The affidavit program took effect June 1. Homeowners who sign the agreement
give police advance permission to enter their property without a search
warrant.

Gregory fears such moves will lead to illegal interrogations of residents.
He says he hasn't received any complaints from constituents. But he adds
that he is concerned that many people might be unaware of their right not
to answer questions from police, or that they could be afraid to complain.

Wilmington's police chief says his officers are operating within the law.
"Any time you are progressive and assertive in the way you police,"
Szczerba says, "you're going to draw attention."