CUSTOMS REFINING DRUG SEARCHES

Passengers have begun suing, and the amount of intercepted drugs has dropped.

WASHINGTON - Beset by investigations and lawsuits alleging abusive tactics,
the Customs Service is retraining officers who check airline passengers for
drugs and trying new technology to reduce the need for invasive body searches.

The changes come as new statistics show the number of cocaine and heroin
smugglers caught at airports dropped by one-fourth in 1998. That poses a
two-pronged problem for Customs officials eager to reverse the decline
while tempering public anger over the way travelers are searched.

"This search authority is crucial for us," Commissioner Raymond Kelly said
in an interview with The Associated Press. "We're trying to show movement
in the right direction so that we keep the authority but make it a less
onerous process."

In pursuit of smugglers who swallow packets of drugs, officers have
subjected passengers to strip searches, taken them in handcuffs to
hospitals for X-rays, and detained some for hours or even days. Almost 100
black women in Chicago are pursuing a joint lawsuit claiming they were
singled out unfairly because of their race.

Nationally, Customs is facing 12 lawsuits over searches of airline
passengers, a spokesman said.

Only a small fraction of the 69 million passengers who pass through Customs
each year are questioned. About 50,000 were subjected to some level of body
search in 1997. Searches usually begin with a frisk or pat-down and, with
reasonable suspicion, can proceed to a strip search, X-ray or monitored
bowel movement.

Drugs were found on about one-fourth of passengers subjected to partial or
full strip searches, the agency says. The rate was close to 100 percent a
decade ago, Kelly said, but smugglers have become more sophisticated and
difficult to recognize.

The Senate Finance Committee, the General Accounting Office and the
Treasury Department are all investigating Customs' airport searches.
Illinois senators raised the issue last year after WMAQ-TV reported on
complaints from black women searched at Chicago's O'Hare airport.

In December, the AP reported that travelers across the country were
complaining of abusive searches.

Since then, Customs has taken several steps to defuse the issue:

An extensive new training program began last month for inspectors at
airports. "It involves both what to look for but also how to handle people,
cultural diversity training, that sort of thing," Kelly said.

Since Feb. 1, inspectors at Miami and New York's Kennedy airports have
given travelers chosen for a pat-down the option of standing in front of a
body-imaging machine instead. Twenty-three people have agreed to the
low-radiation imaging, which looks through clothing. In Miami on Tuesday,
one of the machines revealed 3 1/2 pounds of marijuana in a bicycle tire
strapped around a man's waist, officials said.

Body imaging may be added to other airports if it proves effective and less
objectionable to passengers, a spokesman said. In some cases, travelers
also have been given the option of submitting to an X-ray in lieu of a
strip search.

The Customs Service plans to install X-ray machines and technicians at
major airports to check suspects without transporting them to a hospital.
The agency is looking for a contrac tor and has requested $9 million for
the program in 2000.

Customs is also researching whether breathalyzer technology could be used
to detect latex condoms and balloons, which smugglers fill with drugs and
swallow.

Signs and brochures were being installed in airports this week to explain
why travelers might be subjected to a body search, and new comment cards
make it easier to complain about mistreatment.