The most interesting aspect of Renee Ferguson’s award-winning story, ‘Strip-searched at O’Hare’ in 1997 is about the background elements that lead to months of investigation. One phone call from an innocent social worker—a woman of color who was profiled as a drug carrier and her body cavities were searched, led to a change in policies of U.S. Customs.
Ferguson recounts how Gladys Lindsey, assignments editor at NBC 5 yelled across the room to drop everything and take this phone call which the newsroom received. She patiently listened to what the innocent woman expressed about being strip-searched at O’Hare after returning from a vacation in London. Ferguson said, “I had never heard of this happen and wasn’t sure how this could be true.”
It is important to listen to the other side of the story; hence Ferguson called U.S. Customs and asked whether this had happened. They didn’t deny this and said, “Well you know there are people who come in here with drugs, mules, women and we do the searches.”
The big debate in the NBC 5 newsroom was whether to look for a bigger pattern or just broadcast one woman’s story. Ferguson supported the idea of putting one story on air and see how the audience reacts. At that instant, the newsroom’s phone lines were flooded with calls from innocent women who shared the same experience of being strip-searched.
She said, “It wasn’t just women; children, people in wheelchair, were also taken to hospitals and subjected to vaginal exams.”
Ferguson describes this story as a clear form of gender profiling of black women. When the story was broadcasted, it was found that this wasn’t just happening at O’Hare, it was all happening across the country.
As a result of this break-through story, President Clinton fired the Director of U.S. Customs.
She said, “these strip-searches violated everything our country stands for.”
The question that arises is; why did the U.S. Customs strip-search only black women?
Ferguson found that Customs had first caught a black woman who came in from Jamaica and had a lot of drugs on her. And the officers who caught her; received awards, commendations, promotions.
That created an environment of motivation for officers who looked at all black women as drug carriers. Regardless of the fact that these women are in professionally respected fields, she said, “doctors, lawyers, prominent black women were searched and are undergoing psychiatry because of how they were targeted.”
Ferguson’s broadcasted investigation changed the regulations of how searches would be conducted and on whom and how the country is going to keep everyone safe with their rights.
Ferguson recounts how Gladys Lindsey, assignments editor at NBC 5 yelled across the room to drop everything and take this phone call which the newsroom received. She patiently listened to what the innocent woman expressed about being strip-searched at O’Hare after returning from a vacation in London. Ferguson said, “I had never heard of this happen and wasn’t sure how this could be true.”
It is important to listen to the other side of the story; hence Ferguson called U.S. Customs and asked whether this had happened. They didn’t deny this and said, “Well you know there are people who come in here with drugs, mules, women and we do the searches.”
The big debate in the NBC 5 newsroom was whether to look for a bigger pattern or just broadcast one woman’s story. Ferguson supported the idea of putting one story on air and see how the audience reacts. At that instant, the newsroom’s phone lines were flooded with calls from innocent women who shared the same experience of being strip-searched.
She said, “It wasn’t just women; children, people in wheelchair, were also taken to hospitals and subjected to vaginal exams.”
Ferguson describes this story as a clear form of gender profiling of black women. When the story was broadcasted, it was found that this wasn’t just happening at O’Hare, it was all happening across the country.
As a result of this break-through story, President Clinton fired the Director of U.S. Customs.
She said, “these strip-searches violated everything our country stands for.”
The question that arises is; why did the U.S. Customs strip-search only black women?
Ferguson found that Customs had first caught a black woman who came in from Jamaica and had a lot of drugs on her. And the officers who caught her; received awards, commendations, promotions.
That created an environment of motivation for officers who looked at all black women as drug carriers. Regardless of the fact that these women are in professionally respected fields, she said, “doctors, lawyers, prominent black women were searched and are undergoing psychiatry because of how they were targeted.”
Ferguson’s broadcasted investigation changed the regulations of how searches would be conducted and on whom and how the country is going to keep everyone safe with their rights.