CUSTOMS TO CHANGE POLICY ON DRUG SEARCHES

WASHINGTON-- The Customs Service, responding to allegations of abusive drug
searches, said Wednesday it will begin seeking approval from a federal
magistrate whenever it wants to hold an airline passenger for more than four
hours.

The new policy, effective Oct. 1, marks the latest change in the way customs
checks passengers for drugs and is the most significant step to improve
search procedures, said the agency's commissioner, Raymond Kelly.

The searches are intended to catch smugglers who swallow drug packets or
hide cocaine or heroin inside their clothes. The searches usually begin with
a pat-down and, with reasonable suspicion, can proceed to a partial or full
strip-search, an X-ray or a monitored bowel movement.

In general, customs officers now can detain passengers for long periods of
time without court approval. Under the change, customs would have to
convince a federal magistrate that it had "reasonable suspicion" for keeping
a passenger in custody beyond four hours, Kelly said.

If the magistrate declines the customs request, the passenger is released.

"We're taking people's liberty away. We want judicial review of that," Kelly
said. "We want oversight as soon as reasonably possible."

The American Civil Liberties Union said it was a step in the right
direction. But the group believes the reasonable-suspicion standard is easy
enough for law enforcement to meet and the change still does not "protect
people from abusive or discriminatory" searches, legislative counsel Gregory
Nojeim said.

The ACLU would have preferred a tougher "probable cause" standard that a
crime has been committed, he said. "They are not going the distance that
they should to protect passengers' civil liberties."

Customs arrived at the four-hour trigger because historical data showed that
limit generally is the time frame when critical decisions are made about the
need for more advanced searches, officials said.

Customs is facing numerous lawsuits from people alleging they were singled
out for body searches because of their race and gender. The allegations
first were reported by The Associated Press in December.

The agency announced Wednesday that in May it began collecting, for the
first time, uniform data including the race, gender, age and citizenship of
people detained for a personal search, along with the reason for the search.

Previously, information was not reported in a consistent manner. Customs
officials believe the information, stored in a national database, eventually
will give the agency a more accurate picture of who is being stopped and
why.

In June, President Clinton ordered federal law enforcement officers,
including customs, to document the race and gender of those they arrest or
detain.

About 52,468 of the 71.5 million international air travelers who passed
through customs in 1998 were subjected to some level of body search, most of
them simple pat-downs, customs officials have said. Most people stopped for
searches last year were Hispanic men, followed by white men, and black men;
Hispanics can be members of any race.

So far this fiscal year, 6,829 whites were searched, followed by 6,572
Hispanics and 4,068 blacks; there was no breakdown by gender.

An independent panel has been looking at complaints of racial bias by
customs inspectors involving personal searches and is expected soon to
report its findings, Kelly said. Customs also is revising its handbook on
personal searches.

Customs pledged to help passengers whose travel plans were disrupted if they
were detained but not found to have smuggled drugs: new travel, hotel or
transportation arrangements, with the government paying.

In May, customs changed its policy so a person detained for at least two
hours could call someone about the delay. The agency also has clarified
criteria for conducting searches, is retraining officers and has tightened
the approval process for personal searches.