The scene only could happen in a totalitarian state, you would assume. You'd be wrong. It is occurring in America 2001 -- most specifically, Albuquerque, N.M. -- where train passengers are unknowingly being profiled for profit.

In Albuquerque, Amtrak has established a disturbingly cozy relationship with federal drug agents, offering details about "suspicious" passengers in exchange for 10 percent of any cash seized during drug-related arrests. The information is directly fed to a computer linked to an Amtrak ticketing terminal and sitting on a desk at the local Drug Enforcement Agency office.

The computer -- belonging to an Amtrak investigator who is also a DEA task force deputy -- compiles passengers' names, from and to where they're heading and, most of all, how they paid. Cash purchases are flagged, with some buyers questioned and their luggage checked by the man with the drug-sniffing dog.

It's an outrageous practice, an affront to the very core of personal freedoms. It destroys reasonable expectations of personal privacy by forcing citizens to prove themselves innocent.

The prospect of unwarranted search and seizure is further compounded by issues of race and class: the poor and people of color are accosted the most solely because they often use cash.

At any rate, it's dangerous when government agents gather data on citizens thiss way.

This practice should stop. And Amtrak, however desperate for passengers, ought to be ashamed of its part in it all.

©2001 San Francisco Chronicle

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