OFFICER IN SCHOOLYARD CHASE IS IN SCRUTINIZED UNIT

The detective who chased a drug suspect through a crowded
Brooklyn schoolyard with his gun drawn was part of a narcotics
initiative that has recently come under scrutiny, officials said yesterday.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir said the detective is assigned to the
Gang Investigation Division's Brooklyn North Gang Unit.

Officials said that members of the unit were conducting drug sweeps as
part of Operation Condor, a program instituted by Mayor Rudolph W.
Giuliani in the hope that increased enforcement of low-level narcotics
crimes would lower the city's murder rate, which has begun to inch
up.

Some police commanders have criticized the operation, which is
financed by special overtime funds, for focusing too many resources on
low-level arrests that have heightened tension between the police and
minorities. The operation has resulted in more than 21,000 arrests --
three-quarters of them for minor offenses -- since it began in January.

The playground incident angered parents and community leaders. They
confronted police commanders on Tuesday at two meetings in the school,
asking whether the officers had lost sight of the risk to children in
their effort to catch the suspected drug dealer, who had run from
plainclothes officers wanting to question him. The officers chased him
in a van, which crashed into a tree. They continued the chase on foot.

Mr. Giuliani stressed that the drug sweep's goal had been
misconstrued.

"The whole purpose of an action like that is to remove drug dealers
from the areas around schoolyards and playgrounds because of the great
damage that drug dealers do, and the police want to do that without
creating disruption, problems or difficulty for children," the mayor
said.

Mr. Safir said the detective with his gun drawn would probably face
some form of discipline.

"I believe the police officer used poor judgment, and we're going to
take appropriate action," Mr. Safir told reporters after a meeting
with a group of Bronx clergymen. He did not elaborate.