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NYCLU sues to obtain race of suspects fired at by police

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

August 5, 2008

The New York Civil Liberties Union is suing the New York City Police Department for information it says is important to learning how the department polices minority neighborhoods.

The group Monday filed papers in federal court in Manhattan seeking the release of information on the race of suspects shot at by police officers.

Racial data was included for years in the department's annual report summarizing all police shootings. That changed shortly after the 1999 Bronx shooting death of Amadou Diallo, a West African immigrant street vendor, by four white officers.

According to an unrelated 2004 deposition, Louis Anemone -- who was Chief of Department when Diallo died -- testified that then-Commissioner Howard Safir ordered him to remove all information about race from the report.

Anemone, now retired, Monday said he had explained to Safir why information about race was included in the reports and how leaving it out could hurt the department.

"Sunshine is the best disinfectant," Anemone said, repeating a lesson he learned under a previous commissioner, Bill Bratton. "Open the place up. We have nothing to hide.

"This is how you get the trust of the public -- I believe in this 110 percent."

Safir did not respond to a request for comment.

Christopher Dunn, the NYCLU's associate legal director, says information about race is important to learning how police deal with minorities.

"I don't think it proves race is playing a role in police shootings, but it certainly is important to determining the extent to which race is playing a role," Dunn said. "We think there needs to be more of a public debate about shooting by police. Certainly, in the aftermath of Bell, race needs to be a part of that discussion."

The NYPD says it does not engage in racial profiling, but critics for years have said police officers are too quick to fire at minorities and indiscriminately stop and frisk them.

After the fatal shooting of another young black man, Bell, in 2006, race again became an issue, even though two of the three detectives charged -- and acquitted -- in the case are black.

Before the case went to trial, the NYCLU said it filed a Freedom of Information Law request asking the NYPD for information on race. The NYPD refused, the NYCLU said, even though police had provided the same data to the Rand Corp., the think tank hired to assess the department's stop-and-frisk practices and how officers are trained to use their weapons.

The NYPD did not respond Monday to a request for comment. According to court papers, however, it told the NYCLU it denied its request because information on race was contained on individual shooting reports that are exempt from public disclosure.

But Dunn said the NYCLU doesn't want any other information that police may consider sensitive. "Just give us the information about race," he said.