Posted on 11/09/2005 11:07:51 AM PST by blam
State performs criminal checks on evacuees
Action aimed at identifying sex offenders raises questions of profiling
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
By SEAN REILLY
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Alabama law enforcement authorities have been routinely running criminal background checks on adult Hurricane Katrina evacuees housed at 13 state parks, a spokesman for Gov. Bob Riley confirmed Tuesday.
The spokesman, Jeff Emerson, described the move as primarily aimed at protecting children from registered sex offenders who might be among the evacuees.
But as he and other state officials acknowledged, the evacuees' names are being run through the FBI's Nation al Crime Information Center, a powerful database containing millions of individual records of convictions for other offenses, along with warrants for people wanted on suspicion of committing crimes.
"It may have just been easier or more thorough," Emerson said.
E-mails obtained by the Mobile Register suggest that at least one federal official was concerned that blanket background checks on people not sus pected of a crime could be seen as "profiling."
Those concerns were echoed Tuesday by state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, a Mobile Democrat. Although not opposed to weeding out registered sex offenders, Figures questioned why Riley "saw fit to do a background check on everybody."
It's unclear how many evacuees have had their names run through the FBI's database, a process which is supposed to be followed up by fingerprinting. It is unclear whether any fingerprinting has taken place.
As of Monday, 1,268 people were still living in the park system, said Jim Walker, director of the Alabama Department of Homeland Security.
It also could not be determined late Tuesday afternoon whether other states are also routinely seeking criminal information on evacuees, although a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman said the FBI has made its database available to authorities elsewhere for that purpose.
The issue could surface at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., this morning dedicated to examining Alabama's preparedness and response to Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. Besides Riley and Walker, those scheduled to testify include Alabama Emergency Management Agency Director Bruce Baughman, as well as Walt Dickerson and Leigh Anne Ryals, who head the Mobile and Baldwin County emergency management agencies respectively. Also at the witness table will be FEMA Coordinating Officer Michael Bolch.
Because many Katrina evacuees are black and poor, the issue of background checks is a sensitive one. Just after the hurricane struck, Daphne Mayor Fred Small was criticized by some people for saying that evacuees seeking shelter needed a background check for the safety of neighbors.
On Tuesday, both Emerson and Walker both disputed that the move was motivated by race. Walker doubted that a majority of the evacuees in the parks are black, adding that there have also been complaints of theft and other violations of park rules.
"The governor made a decision that if evacuees were going to move into locations owned by the people of Alabama, then we had a right to know who the heck was going into our parks."
Applicants for federal housing are subject to the same procedures, Walker said, adding that local police are running most of the checks.
The FBI granted access to the database Sept. 2 for the purpose of doing background checks, said Maury Mitchell, director of the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center, which serves as the state's gatekeeper to the system.
The impetus to use the system came from both local and state authorities, he said.
"We had had police chiefs calling within days of the hurricane and then just started having meetings with" leaders of the state Homeland Security Department and other agencies.
But the plan for blanket background checks appears to have troubled Michael Waters, protective security advisor in the Birmingham district of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
"I recommended that we not attempt to do this at all," he wrote in an e-mail Sept. 7 after receiving information from Mitchell and discussing the situation with Ron Sherman, another federal official.
Considering that no background checks were required for Hurricane Ivan evacuees from Baldwin County, Waters said he told Sherman that "this was a potentially explosive issue given the existing race/class issues that have already been raised."
Asked about those concerns, Emerson said that Ivan evacuees were primarily from Alabama, while those fleeing Katrina were from Louisiana and Mississippi.
Finally! Alabama is doing something right!
They run a background check on the names for EVERYONE and thats profiling????????
Black, white, rich or poor...if they have nothing to hide, why be worried about a background check?
I'm sorry, but checking everyone was likely done to avoid the very context of profiling. That which is done to every evacuee cannot be called profiling. Depending on one's political view this was either a good use of the police power or an invasion of privacy and a bad use of police power.
Call me again and tell me the results when all the people have been run through the check. Then I will tell you whether I believe the check was justified. This falls in line with things like random traffic checks for DUI.
A "blanket" background check is NOT profiling.
Profiling is when you NARROW the search to specific criteria.
...Those concerns were echoed Tuesday by state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, a Mobile Democrat...
Figures.
Alabama BUMP.
"Profiling?"
Checking for sex offenders and other criminals is "profiling?"
Well then, so be it!
Ping.
Vivian Davis Figures **wants** profiling, rather than checking everyone, yet she is quoted in such a way in this article as to appear to be against profiling.
This is what happens when Democrats through all possible mud up against the wall; half of them are attacking Gov Riley for profiling, the other half are attacking him for not profiling.
"through" should be "throw"
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