NYPD Attacks Report on Covert Presence Of Police Officers at Three Staged Events

By LAUREN ELKIES, Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 23, 2005

The Police Department yesterday criticized a New York Times article accusing undercover police officers of covertly participating in activities at three staged events to gather information and provoke unrest among participants.

The officers were seen incognito on unofficial video footage provided to the Times by a forensic video analyst, Eileen Clancy, at a protest during the Republican National Convention, a bicycle rally, and a vigil for a cyclist.

The chief spokesman for the Police Department, Paul Browne, defended the department's decision to place officers at key events in a statement yesterday.

"The Police Department has the duty to prevent violence and other unlawful activity at public events, and it's been the NYPD's long-standing practice of assigning both uniformed and plainclothes officers at public events to observe, detect, and prevent criminal activity," Mr. Browne said.

He further said the Times report, which ran on its front page yesterday, erroneously identified the officers as undercover rather than plainclothes officers. He said plainclothes officers are "used to prevent and respond to acts of violence and other unlawful activity," while undercover officers "conduct intelligence investigations."

A civil rights attorney, Norman Siegel, said the Police Department's behavior "infringes on people's rights." He also said, "What New York City seems to be doing is what the Bush Administration is doing nationally."

Had the Police Department suspected there would be violence at the events, it would be justified in its strategic positioning of the officers, Mr. Siegel said. But, as in the cases of the protest, the rally, and the vigil, police officers displayed "fairly clearly unconstitutional activity," a professor at the New York University School of Law, David Golove, said.