High Profile

A narc irks some Vermonters

WANTED: Male, between 22 and 32 years old. Has a penchant for handsome attire, fancy foreign cars, and comes from out of state. He will be looking for isolated property, perhaps even several holdings, and will make the down payment in cash.

Earlier this month, at greater length, the Drug Enforcement Administration began providing Vermont realtors with a so-called drug-trafficker profile. New England DEA Chief Robert Stutman mailed two-page, single-spaced letters asking the state's realtors to "help locate properties that are being utilized to conceal illicit drugs" by flagging the agency when dealing with customers who fit that general description. Stutman said the pusher profile was based on DEA experience. Vermont is located in the middle of the heavily traveled Montreal-Boston smuggling corridor. Says Stutman: "We need all the help we can get."

At the time, Stutman regarded his letter as a routine move, but some Vermonters thought otherwise. Said White River Junction Realtor Chas Baker: "Just about anybody who walks through my doors fits at least one of the profile's criteria." An editorial in the Rutland, Vt, Herald sharply criticized the DEA request, using the headline REALTORS AS NARCS. Some residents even complained to the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, whose executive director, Scott Skinner, found that the DEA profile "smacks of Big Brotherism."

Other Vermonters took a more cooperative view. Insisted Paul Poquette, president of the Vermont Board of Realtors, which provided the DEA with its mailing list: "Anybody who can help uncover drug pushers should." Nonetheless, a DEA official conceded, "The approach could have been more subtle." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.