racial profiling – Medill National Security Zone http://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu A resource for covering national security issues Tue, 15 Mar 2016 22:20:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Chicago Police begin random searches for explosives at CTA stations http://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu/blog/2014/12/01/chicago-police-begin-random-searches-for-explosives-at-cta-stations/ Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:02:48 +0000 http://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu/site/?p=20468

The Chicago Police Department has started randomly searching CTA riders for explosives. Medill’s Adam Banicki spent time in the train station to find out how riders feel about the measure.

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The FBI and counterterrorism http://nationalsecurityzone.medill.northwestern.edu/blog/2010/07/28/the-fbi-and-counterterrorism/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 03:23:24 +0000 http://medillnsj.org/?p=2681 Continue reading ]]> FBI directors decided years ago that they would take a different approach in the fight against terrorists; rather than anticipating a court case during their investigation of suspects, as they had done for decades, the FBI would proceed with the understanding that these cases may never go to court, because of their sensitive nature, but nevertheless their agents would act as though they might someday. Partly as a result, FBI agents have had an outstanding record of clean interrogations and have rarely been accused of mistreating suspects who are in their custody.

Nevertheless, the FBI’s counterterrorism world is complicated, as a recent ACLU case demonstrates, and it may be undergoing some changes. The ACLU “is seeking records from more than two dozen FBI offices around the nation about the collection and use of race and ethnicity data in local communities,” according to CNN.

ACLU attorneys are concerned about the possibility of racial profiling, particularly since an FBI guidebook describes maps of “’so-called ‘ethnic-oriented’ businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with concentrated ethnic populations.” The lawsuit raises questions – first, whether or not the FBI agents are continuing to maintain their rigorous legal standards during investigation and whether they would be able to use the evidence in a courtroom. And, second, about the FBI’s ongoing campaign to solicit information from local Arab-American communities.

Nobody has been more concerned about the rise in homegrown terrorism than Arab-American business leaders in cities like Detroit, with its large Arab-American population, and, as they have explained to me, would gladly help the FBI ferret out suspects within their midst. However, the business leaders would like to be treated as friends and allies during the search for terrorists – rather than as mere interpreters or, even worse, as suspects themselves.

The relationship between Arab-American leaders and FBI agents has been tense since 9/11, and the ACLU case is likely to make things worse. It is now up to the FBI to tamp down the controversy over their investigative techniques and to maintain support among Arab-American leaders and others who may be able to help identify people who will someday become radicalized. The FBI has enjoyed high standing in the counterterrorism world, and now they are being put to a test.

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