The Federal Bureau of Investigation is drumming up controversy with a plan to tweak the rules for national security-related investigations. According to news reports, agents may soon gain greater leeway to pursue people based on suspicious characteristics, drawn from information like travel records or personal associations, as opposed to evidence of an actual crime.

The initiative folds into the bureau's effort to "harmonize" its investigative guidelines, melding its criminal law enforcement and new anti-terror roles. As Attorney General Michael Mukasey explained in a recent speech in Portland, Ore., the bureau wants to "shift its national security focus from investigating crimes after they occur to collecting the intelligence necessary to detect and prevent attacks before they occur."

Civil libertarians worry the planned changes will encourage guilt by association and racial or ethnic profiling--especially for the Muslim and Arab communities that have been targets of counter-terrorism probes. Members of Congress have called for a full public hearing on the changes before they are implemented.

Anyone who’s skeptical about the existence of the so-called “wall” between the news and opinion sections of this newspaper should check out today’s news story about the police involved in the in-custody death of Kenny Lazo and the editorial on the same subject.

The news story included the names of the police, identified publicly for the first time in a letter from Chief Trial Prosecutor John Collins to Frederick Brewington, the attorney representing Lazo’s family. The editorial said the officers had not been publicly identified, citing the Suffolk County executive, police commissioner and other county officials who said late yesterday that they could not release the names because it would be a violation of state civil rights law.

Oops.

We, the editorial board, knew Brewington had some names, but we didn’t have them in hand. And after talking with county officials who said those names couldn’t be officially released, it appeared that Brewington might have gotten them from an unofficial source. Since we couldn’t reach him after that conversation and before our deadline, prudence dictated an editorial based on the information we had in hand.

Unfortunately for us — but fortunately for Newsday readers — reporter Zachary Dowdy did manage to get the names in time to make today’s paper. Our bad.

You do everything right: You haven’t lost your wallet or checkbook, and you shred sensitive information before tossing it. You cover the keypad at the ATM when you punch in your PIN. You’ve secured your wireless network at home, and you make sure you’re on an “https” Web site before you enter your account number for an online purchase.

And it’s still not enough. As we heard a couple days ago, a vast hacker scheme snared more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers through security holes in the wireless networks of a number of popular retailers.

Personal responsibility only goes so far. Hackers are experts at finding and exploiting weaknesses, leaving everyone else to play catch up. So retailers and the banking industry need to get out ahead. If they want to keep customers, they need to work with technology companies to find better ways to keep our financial data safe.

We likely haven't heard the whole story about why a Saturday night 911 call from Hicksville was put on hold for nearly two minutes. Meena Kohli, the mother of the caller, had been fatally stabbed. Officials say that high volume is one reason callers with emergencies sometimes have to wait to speak to an operator. So it's ironic -- not to mention unfortunate -- that anyone with information about Harpal Hira, a "person of interest" in Kohli's murder, is being urged to call ... 911.

To keep that line open for emergencies, Hira-spotters can call CrimeStoppers at 800-244-TIPS instead.

How fast can you take 300 people to court? The raid of an Iowa meatpacking plant earlier this year was a grim case study in rapid-response law enforcement. Hundreds of workers at the Agriprocessors plant in Potsville, Iowa were swept up by federal authorities and within days, swiftly processed and convicted through a makeshift court and detention camp set up at a cattle fairgrounds.

The workers, most from Guatemala and unable to communicate with the court in English, were essentially herded through the proceedings with little understanding of what was happening. In the end, 260 people pleaded guilty -- on the promise of less prison time and a chance to return home sooner -- and received five-month prison terms for using false employment-related documents.

Though officials claim that workers’ rights were respected, the Potsville raid signals a shift in immigration enforcement that is shaking up communities from Los Angeles to Long Island.

Before a House panel yesterday, legal observers said the uncanny efficiency of these “fast track” convictions reflects a deeper malaise in immigration policy.

Advancements in the science of criminal investigation--particularly genetic data--offer the comforting notion that courts and law enforcement are becoming more objective and less error prone. But just how damning is DNA evidence?

A series in the Los Angeles Times questions a law enforcement tool that many take for granted as being in our best interest. The drama started when a probe of a government database by an Arizona crime lab analyst turned up a remarkable number of DNA matches. The revelation cast doubt on the presumption that genetic evidence is an unassailable smoking gun.

The FBI and state officials have tried to dismiss the findings, alleging that the statistics and methodology used are misleading. But advocates for the accused argue that it is in fact the government that is manipulating DNA evidence, by misrepresenting the odds of a coincidental match and potentially swaying jurors in the wrong direction.

Dealing guns illegally is the same as dealing death.

It sure was when Erik Corse of Freeport sold handguns to Tyrel Cason of Roosevelt. He used one of them to kill reformed gang-banger Hykiem Coney in 2006 outside a Uniondale bar. Cason is already doing 20 to 30 years in prison for the killing. Now Corse is about to join him.

Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice threw the book at Corse. Convicted of a slew of gun possession and sale charges, he was sentenced Monday to 14 to 17 years in prison by Acting Supreme Court Judge Alan Honorof. Their hard-nosed approach is pitch perfect.

Guns are easy enough for straight arrows to buy legally. Outside those legal channels, the market is criminals selling to criminals. The only thing to lament here is that Corse wasn’t caught before someone died.