CUSTOMS TARGETED BLACK WOMEN UNEVENLY

WASHINGTON -- Black women coming into the USA were more likely than
other passengers to be stripped and searched by Customs inspectors,
according to a government report due out today.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) concludes that black women were
nine times more likely than white women to be X-rayed or forced to
endure other intrusive searches after being frisked or ''patted
down.'' However, they were less than half as likely to be carrying
contraband or drugs. The report also found that white men and women
were more likely to be held for more intrusive searches than black men
and Hispanic men and women but were less likely to be found with contraband.

The study, ''Better Targeting of Airline Passengers for Personal
Searches Could Produce Better Results,'' analyzed 102,000 searches by
Customs inspectors of passengers on international flights in fiscal
years 1997 and 1998. About 140 million people came into the USA on
international flights during that time.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. requested the report in response to
complaints from black women who filed a class-action lawsuit that
claims they were unfairly singled out at Chicago O'Hare International
Airport. While welcoming the outside investigation, Customs
Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday that it is based on ''dated
information,'' much of which has been corrected by reforms ordered
last year.

Among the changes at the Customs Service:
* Supervisors must approve ''pat-downs.'' In the past, inspectors could
order such searches at random.

* The highest-ranking Customs official at the airport must approve all
intrusive searches. Requests for such searches also must include a
consultation with Customs lawyers.

* Less-intrusive body scanners have been installed at some airports.
The scanners allow passengers to be searched without being touched or
undressed.

According to Customs, 649 passengers this year have undergone
intrusive searches, which include body-cavity searches, X-rays and
monitored bowel movements. Of those, 309 had drugs, or 47.6%.

By comparison, inspectors ordered 931 similar searches in the first
six months of 1999 and found drugs in 293 cases, or 31.5%. In the
first half of 1998, the year the GAO report was ordered, inspectors
sought 1,386 intrusive searches and found drugs in 289, or 21%.

''Our reforms are working,'' Kelly said. ''Our searches are more
effective. I think the reforms we've made have had a positive
impact.'' A personal search is used to detect drugs under a person's
clothes or in a person who has swallowed drugs or has tried to hide
them in a body cavity. The GAO is the investigative arm of Congress.