OFFICERS' TACTICS MOVE OFF THE BUS

Albany Investigators Seeking To Stem Drug Traffic Will Now Watch Passengers
Leaving The Vehicles

Sheriff's investigators have changed their methods for nabbing suspected
drug mules at the Albany bus terminal to get around a recent court ruling
that says they cannot question people simply because they came from New
York City.

Investigators will no longer board buses from New York City and ask
passengers to produce identification, sheriff's officials said. Now, bus
passengers will be questioned only after getting off a bus and only if they
are acting suspiciously.

In the past, sheriff's investigators used random identification checks as a
way to watch for anyone acting "suspiciously" as investigators walked down
bus aisles checking tickets and IDs.

But defense lawyers contend the practice is unconstitutional.

"Why aren't we hearing more about it? Generally speaking, it's because
people who ride on buses are poor or young, and these are not two groups
with political clout," said Terence L. Kindlon, an Albany defense attorney
who has challenged the bus station searches since the 1980s. "Put sheriff's
investigators with guns and badges outside a jet at Albany (International)
Airport ... loaded with families coming home from Disney World and see how
many of those people act nervous."

Typically, the sheriff's narcotics unit runs two stings a month at the
terminal. Last year, 13 people were arrested on drug or weapons charges at
the station. Over the past 11 years, sheriff's officials estimate they have
seized about 100 handguns and tens of thousands of dollars worth of drugs.
The most recent detail took place Thursday, just one week after the Court
of Appeals overturned the drug conviction of a Nassau County man who was
arrested in 1997 when sheriff's investigators boarded a bus in Albany and
asked all 15 passengers for identification.

"They're saying we can't go aboard the bus, but we can still look for
reasonable suspicion (of bus passengers)," said Inspector John Burke, who
has headed the undercover Albany County Sheriff's Department stings since
1990. Before that Burke was an Albany detective and ran similar operations
for that department.

When a bus from New York City pulled into Albany at 10:30 p.m. Thursday,
sheriff's investigators deployed a new tactic. Two plainclothes sheriff's
investigators with their badges hanging from their necks stood outside the
door as passengers got off the bus. Another group of undercover
investigators then watched the passengers for anyone who acted suspiciously
when they spotted the officers' badges.

Investigators zeroed in on a 16-year-old girl and 21-year-old man from New
York City who "acted suspiciously" as they walked toward a cab, Burke said.
They allegedly handed a black bag back and forth.

The girl, Lizette Perez, allegedly told investigators who asked her for
identification that she was carrying marijuana. They arrested her for
unlawful possession of marijuana and allegedly found two ounces of crack
cocaine in her pants. Perez and the man traveling with her, Godfrey
Waldron, were then charged with felony drug possession.

"Cops are always complaining about lawyers looking for loopholes and now
they are looking for a loophole in the Court of Appeals decision," said
James Long, an Albany criminal defense attorney who was the original public
defender in the recent Court of Appeals case. "While each case is decided
on its own facts, it appears again that the only suspicious activity this
young lady did was get off a bus from New York City and get into a cab."

Burke said that investigators often question people at the bus terminal
they believe are acting suspiciously but have to let them walk away if they
refuse to speak with investigators.

Kindlon contends most people don't know they have the right to not answer
any questions. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution also protects their
right against unlawful searches. Kindlon said there is no way to measure
how many innocent people's rights have been violated. Even in cases where
the arrests have been upheld in court, defense attorneys have argued that
judges turn a blind eye to the questionable policing.

Sheriff's investigators once arrested a man on drug possession charges
after following him into a bus terminal restroom and observing that he did
not lower his pants when he went into a stall and flushed the toilet.

"Why would a reasonable person go into a toilet and flush it twice without
taking his pants down?" Burke said.

District Attorney Paul Clyne said he supports the sheriff's department
decision to continue the stings.

"The police are not going to use that specific procedure (of boarding buses
from New York City)," Clyne said. "However, that does not mean that they're
not going to go down to the bus terminals and observe the traffic in an
effort to interdict drugs that are flowing into the Capital District via
these buses."