Pubdate: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 Source: Florida Today (FL) Contact: http://www.flatoday.com/letters.htm Website: http://www.flatoday.com/ Copyright: 1999 FLORIDA TODAY CUSTOMS SERVICE REWORKS CONTROVERSIAL AIRPORT DRUG SEARCHES 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. "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. Kelly acknowledged body searches can be traumatic and have become a "significant problem" for Customs. 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 International Airport and New York's Kennedy International Airport 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Rich O'Grady