Columbia University Teachers College said it would hand over surveillance video to police that could show who left a noose hanging on a black professor’s office after, police say, the school’s officials initially refused to cooperate.

The noose was found at 9:15 a.m. on Tuesday, and police officials said they quickly sought access to seven cameras positioned around the Teachers College building in the hopes of identifying a suspect.

Police said it took until today, however — after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters at a midday news conference that Teachers College was refusing to give up the tapes — for school officials to agree to the investigators’ request.

“We are giving the tapes to the police,” a Teachers College spokesman, Joe Levine said in a phone interview this afternoon. “It is happening.”

Mr. Levine said that contrary to the earlier statements by Mr. Kelly, Teachers College was cooperating with police.

The noose, a four-foot long twine rope tied by hand, was left dangling on the office doorknob of Madonna Constantine, who has written extensively about race and multiculturalism.

Columbia University faculty, students, and local elected officials held a raucous rally yesterday to denounce the hate crime, which comes on the heels of several other high profile incidents of bias in the city and elsewhere.

Police also said they have not yet identified a primary suspect, but said that every hour counts in the early stages of an investigation.

An NYPD spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, said that the seven Hate Crime Taskforce investigators working on the case asked for 56 hours of surveillance video from Teachers College on Tuesday, shortly after they interviewed the victim.

Mr. Browne said that Teachers College security officials agreed, but told them the technician who could to download the tape would not be available until Wednesday.
Investigators agreed to wait till the next day, police said, but became impatient when the technician had not contacted them by Wednesday afternoon.

The commanding officer of the Hate Crime Taskforce, Deputy Inspector Michael Osgood, then called the Teachers College general counsel, Janice Robinson, to ask for her help in accessing the video, police officials said.

It was then that she informed investigators that Teachers College would not hand over a tape until police produced a subpoena, according to police. Mr. Levine could not be reached immediately to respond to that allegation.

Mr. Browne said police were able to procure a subpoena by midnight last night, and had been prepared to serve it on the college. He said the police department was “disappointed and surprised” at the Teachers College response, noting that other universities had given over video footage to aid in police investigations.

He cited the recent case of the murder of a New York University professor’s daughter on campus property, in which surveillance footage helped lead police to the victim’s ex-boyfriend. He also cited the recent rape of a Columbia University student, in which a bodega handed over security video footage that led to the capture of a suspect.

“It is always important in an investigation to get information as quickly as possible,” Mr. Browne said. “It gives the perpetrator less time to concoct a story or cover their tracks.”

Police do not yet have a suspect in the noose case. According to police sources, investigators are interviewing Teachers College faculty and students of Ms. Constantine, including a Teachers College professor who may have had a rivalry with the victim. The sources said that professor has been “very credible and very cooperative,” and is not considered a suspect.

Police officials said they hoped to begin viewing the footage today.