Rand Corp. To Study Police Weapons Drills

Amid scrutiny of the police department following the fatal shooting of Sean Bell by police nearly six weeks ago, the department has hired a consulting firm to evaluate its firearms training procedures.

At a news conference yesterday during which he said the November 25 police shooting raised a "number of questions," Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the Rand Corporation would conduct a multi-pronged assessment of "officers' responses in highly stressful situations." In addition to appraising cadet and in-service firearms training, he said, the company will focus on the phenomenon of "contagious" shooting, when officers fire in a chain reaction, as well as the department's Firearms Discharge Review process.

Mr. Kelly said Rand would not review the Bell shooting, during which officers fired on Bell and two others 50 times outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens. A Rand executive heading up the review, K. Jack Riley, said the assessment would take about six months and cost about $500,000. It will be paid for by a private police foundation, officials said.

The president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, said in a statement that he welcomed additional or improved training. He encouraged similar reviews of police staffing and pay levels.

Reached by telephone, the head of the Detectives Endowment Association, Michael Palladino, declined to comment until the results of the study are announced.

Critics of the police in the wake of the shooting said the review of training procedures fell short of their expectations. "It's too little, too late," a spokesman for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, Marquez Claxton, said. Pointing out that four officers involved in the Bell shooting missed a mandatory firearms training session last year, Mr. Claxton questioned Mr. Kelly's commitment to training. "It's a stalling tactic," he said of the planned assessment.