I had a nearly identical situation. Right after 911 I reported a car with four young Arab males acting ery strangely and explicitly taking video of multiple tall buildings in downtown Atlanta. The agent taking the report sounded completely disinterested and I got the feeling the conversation was just going into a black hole.
So I came here and just made a full report on FR. It got a lot of attention - so much so the post had to be pulled.
“I had a nearly identical situation. “
You are correct. Your experience and mine were uncannily similar. I also posted here about my experience. A while ago I searched for it in the FR archives but couldn’t find it. I remember I used the word ‘swarthy” in the title.