As pundits debate the likelihood of terrorists targeting Salt Lake City's Olympics, another group of highly sophisticated criminals will have their eyes on the upcoming 2002 Winter Games.
International pickpocket rings will case crowded areas such as downtown Salt Lake City and Park City's Main Street, watching the 70,000 visitors a day who are expected to descend on Salt Lake City with cash and a penchant for a good time.
And if past gatherings are any indication, the large crowds anticipated for the Games are lucrative targets for these professional thieves, making Olympic gathering spots a virtual all-you-can-eat buffet for these professional thieves who thrive on distracting the unsuspecting frolicker.
"If I were a pickpocket, I would come to the Olympics, and I would score a lot of money," said Lothel Crawford Jr., retired 15-year veteran of the New York Police Department's pickpocket squad. "It's a big problem, because if it's an international event, it's going to attract people from all over the world. Their guard will be down, and these pickpockets know exactly how to target tourists."
Crawford is recognized as an expert on international pickpocket groups and trains police departments all over the world in catching such crooks. He estimates about 25 professional pickpockets a day will hit Olympic gathering sites.
In Crawford's estimation, Salt Lake City is woefully unprepared for the problem.
"They don't know jack (expletive) about pickpockets right now," Crawford said. "They will be there. You're not going to know the guy next to you is a pickpocket."
Catching these crafty thieves requires years of experience and Joblike patience, Crawford said. It takes many officers years of training to become proficient in pickpocket methods. All the while these pickpockets go through intense training themselves, often staying one step ahead of police, Crawford said.
Unlike New York, the Salt Lake City Police Department does not have a pickpocket squad. But officers will be receiving some training on watching for pickpockets, Sgt. Fred Louis said.
"We have heard information about them coming to large events like this, and we are in the process of looking at some training for crime prevention in this regard," Louis said.
With preventing terrorism now one of the primary focus of the Games, the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command is leaving it up to individual agencies to handle pickpocketing problems.
"If someone is pickpocketed during the Olympics, it will be reported to the local law-enforcement agency," UOPSC spokeswoman Tamara Palmer said. "With a major event, you'll see an increase in petty theft, which includes pickpocketing."
According to Crawford, pickpockets come in all shapes and sizes: black, white, short, tall, skinny, fat, well-dressed, casual.
They often work in groups with at least one person serving as a lookout, another person to distract the victim and another to make the pick. Still others can be involved as hand-offs, making it difficult to track down your wallet once you discover it missing.
"At the Olympics a good pickpocket should be doing $3,000 to $4,000 for one day," Crawford said.
Many good pickpockets can make six figures a year, Crawford said.
Their training is sophisticated and always changing, making it difficult for police to keep track of how these thieves work. Many become so proficient, they'll even operate right under the nose of police officers patrolling a large crowd.
"A good pickpocket can basically take your tie off of you without you realizing it," said Peter Tarlow, an expert on law enforcement and tourism who works in tourism security for the Department of the Interior. Tarlow has also helped train some of Utah's Olympic officers and will be in Salt Lake City again next week to address a variety of topics with Salt Lake City Police Department.
"I'm sure that will be one of the areas that I will be touching upon," Tarlow said of international pickpocket rings.
Unlike terrorists, pickpockets don't have a particular cause, so to speak, other than making money, Tarlow said. But the sophistication they use in committing their crimes is quite similar.
Pickpockets will likely arrive in Salt Lake City long before the Games to become familiar with the area, Tarlow said.
And just like terrorists, these professional pickpockets see their victims as simply a means to achieve their goal.
"It's very similar psychologically to the mind-set of terrorists," Tarlow said. "The terrorist says, 'You deserve it. I didn't do anything wrong. That's my job.' . . . They have no compassion for their victims."
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com