Pubdate: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Author: Connie Cass, Associated Press Writer CUSTOMS SET TO FIRE WHISTLEBLOWER WASHINGTON - The Customs Service is moving to fire an inspector who went public with allegations that black and Hispanic airline passengers were being targeted for drug searches because of their race. Although Customs official deny any racial bias, the agency made several changes to improve the treatment of airline passengers after complaints from Cathy Harris and others - including dozens of women who filed lawsuits - brought congressional attention to the issue. Customs officials have given Harris a 30-day notice of plans to fire her because she allowed a television station access to internal records showing black passengers in Atlanta were singled out for searches at a higher rate than whites. Customs regulations ban release of the records, which include personal information about travelers. Under pressure from Congress, travelers' lawsuits and news reports, Commissioner Raymond Kelly ordered several changes this year to make searches less traumatic for passengers and guard against racial targeting by inspectors. Strip searches and body cavity searches are used to find people smuggling heroin or cocaine under their clothes or inside their bodies. Changes include sensitivity training for inspectors, letting people detained for more than two hours call a lawyer, and requiring legal advice from a U.S. attorney if a passenger is detained more than eight hours. In some airports, micro-dose X-ray machines are now being used in lieu of pat-downs in some cases. ``What the public scrutiny caused, and what the specter of Senate Finance Committee hearings caused, was a top-to-bottom review of not just racial bias, but what are our policies and procedures and why, and should we change them,'' Customs spokesman Dennis Murphy said Friday. Customs, meanwhile, is taking steps to fire another inspector who has publicly criticized the agency: Croley Forester, president of the Treasury employees' union local in Miami. Forester, who complained about lax security at Miami International Airport and cronyism within Customs, was accused of falsely saying he had inspected a box that later was found to contain cocaine, officials said. Murphy said the cases aren't retaliation, but instead reflect reforms designed to make the disciplinary process more fair and consistent. ``The Atlanta and Miami cases show we are going to be evenhanded,'' Murphy said. ``When people who have gone public with allegations in the past are caught up in situations that go before the Discipline Review Board, we can't say that's so-and-so and if we do something to them that would create problems for us. That's favoritism.'' Harris plans to seek government help under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects the jobs of federal workers who disclose waste, fraud and abuse. She admits printing out six months' worth of records of searches at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport for an attorney representing her in a sexual and racial harassment complaint against Customs. She said her former attorney shared them with WAGA-TV in Atlanta for a story that aired last February without her knowledge. But Harris says she has no regrets about the disclosure. ``They wouldn't have gotten the full story without me doing that, and people need to know,'' she said. Harris said black travelers were routinely singled out for strip searches while white passengers - even those who aroused the interest of drug dogs - were not stopped. ``I stood there all day long and I watched this. I knew what was going on and it was wrong,'' said Harris, 43, who has worked 13 years for Customs. Harris, who says she and other black female employees were also harassed, has sent written testimony to two congressional committees and the General Accounting Office, filed eight complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, organized a protest group among Customs workers and is pursuing her own harassment lawsuit. She is currently on unpaid leave, which she sought because of stress. Harris' attorney, Tom Allison, said the changes in Customs' procedures should help vindicate her. ``It's an admission that what she reported was actually something where policies needed to change,'' Allison said. ``She did what she thought was right. She is a whistleblower.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea