
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 19, 1990                   TAG: 9004190747
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ARLINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

NAACP PROBES COMPLAINTS ABOUT ARLINGTON POLICE

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is investigating complaints that Arlington County police are randomly stopping and photographing black men in an effort to find out who killed a 23-year-old woman on a bike path last month.

"We intend to investigate the circumstances of the investigation to see if police procedures were consistent with constitutional standards that apply here," Carolyn Eaglin, chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the Arlington branch of the NAACP, said Wednesday.

Barry Hulick, a spokesman for the Arlington police, confirmed that since Ann Borghesani's slaying on a Rosslyn bike path March 31, police have taken photos of 12 men "roughly matching" the general description of the suspect.

In only one case has one of the men detained filed a complaint with the police about having been photographed, Hulick said. He added that the man has since dropped his complaint.

"We would urge caution in these kinds of investigations," said Jan Laurie Goldman, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union. "The taking of pictures in and of itself is not a violation of a person's rights, but there is a stigma attached to that."

Hulick said pictures taken by police "would remain in the case file until the case is closed. Then the picture would be put in a picture file; it would probably not be destroyed. In some cases, the photos themselves become used like composites and help us to identify a suspect."

by CNB