The NYT reports that earlier this year, New York cops ran a subway theft sting which ended up entrapping Good Samaritans:

Shopping bags, backpacks and purses were left around the subway system, then stealthily watched by undercover officers. They arrested anyone who took the items and walked past a police officer in uniform without reporting the discovery…

… a 31-year-old Manhattan man who said he was on a shopping expedition with his wife, spotted a Verizon shopping bag with a cellphone and iPod inside… As he was looking in the bag, a train arrived… he and his wife boarded, rushed past a uniformed officer, bringing along the bag with the intention of looking for a receipt. Undercover officers then grabbed him…

Now, a new version of the operation has started to catch people in public places outside the subways… the bags are now salted with real American Express cards, issued under pseudonyms to the Police Department. Because the theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a Class E felony, those convicted could face sentences of up to four years. [Link via Reddit]

The DA pointed out that these weren’t convictable offenses unless the accused made it clear they intended to steal the goods rather than return them. Many of these cases were dropped, but the operation was amped up and relaunched. But entrapment isn’t the only thing that’s worrisome about this operation.

As a desi subway rider, the last thing I’d do is walk up to a cop with a lost bag. First, because cops are apparently bag-searching and profiling people who look like me, so only bad things could come of this. Second, there’s no good way to explain the situation: ‘I just found this bag, I don’t know what’s in it, please hold onto it.’ Next thing you know, you’re measuring out curtains for your chain-link cell at Gitmo. Third, beat cops aren’t lost ‘n founds. Unless the bag seemed like an immediate and obvious danger, I’d turn it in to a subway clerk first.

Underlying all the hypotheticals is the fact that NYC cops have real street crime to solve without inciting people to commit more. Trying to draw out known thieves is one thing, but at least half the people arrested under the earlier program had no criminal record. I’d wager the majority of those were planning to turn in the bags to the transit clerk, precinct lost ‘n found or the owners themselves. Cabbies and regular folks return lost cell phones to their owners in New York all the time.

If you see something, say something… or be thrown in jail for carrying the police commissioner’s AmEx.

Related posts: A country of snitches, No halal soup for you, Sniff ‘n scratch, The profiling myth, part 2, Muriel’s shredding, Banerjee wants bag search ban, A profile of cognitive dissonance, The profiling myth