We have been having a lot of break-ins in our neighborhhod lately. It is quiet, inhabited by senior citizens, and many houses are locked up for the summer because the owners are up north. The pattern seems to be that young punks from the surrounding neighborhoods walk or bike through the streets, checking up on which houses seem vulnerable, and then they break into them later.

But we are a nice place to walk or bike in because there is no traffic. Both residents and outsiders take walks here, or come to ride their bikes, jog or even skate. You can profile a young black man wearing a hoodie as a potential suspect, but he has every right to be there on a public road. In fact, he may be visiting relatives who live there (we have a proportion of black residents roughly equal to that of the national population.) The neighborhood is roughly a square about a half mile on a side, and has about 10 miles of narrow twisty roads and cul-de-sacs, outside people are always getting lost here.

One night while riding my bike for exercise (I was not on patrol), I spotted two young black men, wearing hoodies and pants slung down way below their waist, walking through the complex. I stopped and in a friendly manner, politely asked if they were lost (not a trick question, our street layout and numbering system is deliberately designed to discourage through traffic and visitors with no business here). They said they were, and asked for directions to get out. I gave them and moved on. I didn't believe a word of their story.

Since I know the neighborhood extremely well, I was able to follow them without them being aware of it. I had the advantage of speed, stealth and know the street layout, all the short cuts and blind alleys, can look between houses from parallel streets, or follow discreetly from far behind in the dark, avoiding the streetlights. I soon realized they were ignoring my instructions to get to the main drag, and seemed to be systematically reconnoitering the complex. I followed them for about an hour until they finally left.

Were they casing the joint? Probably. But they also knew they had been spotted, and I had their description. They had every right to be there and I had no right to challenge them.