Prometheus 6

A Johns Hopkins University biophysicist was among a group arrested in Harrisburg for holding an outdoor party that lacked a permit. She was subjected to a strip search and body-cavity inspection that included the removal of her tampon. The charges were dropped, but she'll never forget the humiliation....

The overzealousness of suburban police again raises questions about Philadelphia Mayor-elect Michael Nutter's plan for a "stop-and-frisk" policing program to reduce gun violence in some neighborhoods. Such measures cannot be a license to arbitrarily violate the civil rights of innocent people....

A number of other troubling issues are also raised in the series. For one, police in several suburbs appear to recruit their officers mainly in Iowa.

Editorial | Profiling in Suburbia
No mere nuisance

The ghost of Frank Rizzo lives. Except now, the late top cop and mayor appears to be walking a suburban beat.

An Inquirer series on suburban police practices that concludes today reads like a throwback to the 1960s, when the Philly cops under Rizzo were known for meting out street justice - especially in black neighborhoods.

The series details how police officers in Coatesville, Darby, Pottstown and other suburbs have racked up some of the highest arrest rates in America for such minor offenses as loitering, disorderly conduct and jaywalking.

African Americans have been arrested on many of these charges much more frequently than whites. Suburban police departments deny racial profiling. But walking while black sure seems like a crime in some Pennsylvania towns.