The Master Chief looked at him.
“Why?”
The man frowned.
“What?”
“Why worse?”
The deputy director struggled.
“I suppose I expected there might have been something not visible in the passenger video.”
“A threat?”
“Some provocation.”
The Master Chief nodded.
“That assumption is worth examining too.”
The man looked chastened.
The Master Chief was not trying to embarrass him.
That was the difficult part.
He simply refused to let anyone escape into comforting language.
The internal-affairs investigator opened another screen.
“We pulled the officer’s discretionary contacts for eighteen months.”
The police chief looked up.
“Already?”
“The database is indexed.”
“What do we have?”
“Thirty-four identity-related or credential-related contacts.”
The chief frowned.
“That sounds high.”
“It is.”
“What’s unit median?”
“Nine.”
The room changed.
The investigator continued.
“Of those thirty-four, twenty-eight resulted in no violation.”
“Three involved expired airport vendor badges.”
“One false contractor pass.”
“One altered parking permit.”
“One currently uncategorized.”
The Master Chief asked:
“Demographics?”
The civil-rights attorney glanced at counsel.
Counsel nodded.
The investigator answered.
“Twenty-three subjects identified as Black, Latino, Middle Eastern, Asian, or multiracial.”
“Eleven white.”
The Master Chief looked at the percentages.
“Airport passenger demographics?”
“Roughly fifty-one percent white, forty-nine percent all other groups combined, varying seasonally.”
The Navy Captain exhaled slowly.
The police chief said:
“Thirty-four contacts isn’t enough alone.”
The Master Chief nodded.
“Correct.”
Several people looked surprised again.
He continued.
“Statistics identify questions.”
“They don’t read minds.”
“Pull language.”
“Complaint history.”
“Verification attempts.”
“Supervisory closures.”
The investigator nodded.
“We are.”
By six that evening, they had five formal complaints.
The police chief knew about two.
That bothered him more than the five themselves.
Three had never reached internal affairs.
A sergeant had closed them at first-line review.
The same sergeant.
The first complaint came from a twenty-two-year-old Black sailor traveling home on emergency leave.
The officer doubted his military ID.
Never called verification.
Detained him forty-two minutes.
The sailor missed his shuttle.
Complaint classification:
Miscommunication during routine credential inquiry.
The second involved a Coast Guard officer.
Latino.
He had a beard authorized under medical waiver.
The airport officer told him:
“Coast Guard doesn’t let people look like that.”
The credential was valid.
Complaint closed:
No misconduct. Officer acted with reasonable suspicion due inconsistent appearance.
The third involved a Black Army chaplain.