Pubdate: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Section: News,page 12 Author: Jeannine Aversa-The Associated Press CUSTOMS SERVICE WILL REVISE SEARCH PROCEDURES Law Enforcement:The Agency Will Need Approval From A Federal Magistrate If It Holds A Passenger For More Than Four Hours. Washington-The Customs Service,responding to allegations of abusive drug searches, said Wednesday that it will begin seeking approval from a federal magistrate any time 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 hide cocaine or heroin inside their clothes or who swallow drug packets. 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 mintored bowel movement. In general, customs 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 continuing keeping a passenger in custody beyond four hours, Kelly said. If the magistrate declines the Customs Service request, the passenger is released. 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 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. Around 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. 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea