Some black officials are attacking the mayor’s record on improving police-community relations following allegations by a prominent black civil-rights lawyer and his wife that a police sergeant assaulted them.

The lawyer, Michael Warren, who is known for defending five black teenagers accused and later absolved of raping a jogger in Central Park, and his wife, Evelyn Warren, were arrested and allegedly punched by police after they got involved in a drug arrest in Prospect Heights on Thursday.

A group of City Council members and other elected officials said Mr. Warren’s arrest was straining the already tense relations between police and minorities following two high-profile shootings. The arrest happened on the same day that Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly rolled out a new initiative to teach cultural sensitivity to police recruits.