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City debates possiblity of profiling in Sunnyvale
Attorney General asks to contact 10 people in terrorist investigation
By Jana Seshadri
The search for possible terrorist threats on U.S. soil has hit the city of Sunnyvale. The ensuing controversy has involved the public safety department, the city council, and the city manager.
Sunnyvale City Manager Robert LaSala said the city received a letter early last month from the U.S. Attorney General's office with a list of approximately 10 males. According to Captain Byron Pipkin, special operations officer for the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department, all the males on the list are within a certain age range, hold passports from countries with active terrorist operations and have entered the United States after Jan. 1, 2000, on non-immigrant visas.
Pipkin said the investigation process is under way, but he said he could not reveal any of the names on the list. Recent reports from the attorney general's office suggest all the males on the list would be of a certain ethnic background.
According to Pipkin, under the Department of Justice's initiative, the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department will contact the people on the list and request them to speak voluntarily to its law enforcement agency and willingly disclose information they may have of terrorist threats to the lives and safety of people in the United States. Members of the Antiterrorism Task Force, which is under the direction of the U.S. Attorney's Office, will conduct the interviews following guidelines set by the deputy attorney general of the United States.
Since two people on the list no longer live in Sunnyvale, the remaining eight men will be contacted, LaSala said.
"These are voluntary interviews," Pipkin said. "We will not violate anyone's rights; we will treat them with dignity and respect."
LaSala said Public Safety has routinely cooperated with other local, regional and national law enforcement agencies, and this issue is nothing different, except it is very high profile.
"I know how our Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety employees treat people," LaSala said. "I have confidence that they will treat this issue with the utmost respect and sensitivity."
But according to Sunnyvale City Councilwoman Pat Vorreiter, there's another totally different issue at stake here.
"Terror has many different colors and faces," Vorreiter said at the Jan. 8 city council meeting. "Think of Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kazinsky [the Unabomber], the kids at Columbine and, just a few days ago, the teenager who drove his plane into that building."
Vorreiter said several cities, including San Jose, have decided not to be a part of this investigation and made a direction to staff not to participate in the Justice Department's directive.
Councilman Manuel Valerio agreed with Vorreiter, saying, "A certain race cannot be singled out."
"Some people are very concerned about racial profiling," LaSala said.
However, LaSala also said this issue is one of national security and should be of concern to everyone living in the country. He said if every city refuses to follow the Justice Department directive, then the work will never get done.
Several other council members voiced their concerns about the investigation, calling for sensitivity and respect during the process. Vorreiter made a motion to put the issue on the agenda for the Jan. 15 city council meeting, for further discussion and a possible vote on whether the investigation process should continue. The motion carried on a split vote of 5-2, with council members Tim Risch and John Howe voting against it.
"I would like a full public hearing on this issue," Howe said. "We should make sure that this policy applies to every department for everything that we do, so we don't discriminate."
The issue on the council's agenda ensures debate and discussion among council members during the Jan. 15 meeting.
"We've been directed by city council to hand over a staff report on the status of the investigation so far," Pipkin said. "If council votes not to participate in this, then the investigation will be suspended."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
