Smile for
the officer

A man is standing on a corner somewhere in Wilmington, Delaware. A cruiser pulls up and officers detain him briefly. They tell him not to loiter. Before he is released, police snap a picture of him. The man has just been added to a state database of likely law-breakers. Call it the Delaware Department of Pre-Crime.

Condemned by many, Wilmington has been compiling a database of people they think may one day commit a crime with the hopes it will make catching bad guys easier. State prosecutors say the practice is legal, but that hasn’t swayed strong opposition from the ACLU or the Delaware public defender.

Wilmington Mayor James Baker has called criticism “asinine and intellectually bankrupt,” adding, “until a court says otherwise, if I say it’s constitutional, it’s constitutional.” Not surprisingly, most of the 200 people listed since June are visible minorities. Many have never been accused of any crime. :
-Scott Saxon