QUESTIONS FLY OVER OPERATION CONDOR

The police shooting of an unarmed security guard last week throws a
spotlight on a huge, anti-drug crackdown that is adding hundreds of
plainclothes cops to city streets daily -- all working overtime and
under heavy pressure to make arrests.

Operation Condor has boosted arrests by some 18,000 from mid-January
through March 12, and lowered major crimes by nearly 8% from the
corresponding period last year.

Many see such sting operations as one of the cornerstones of the
city's drop in crime.

"It is a way that you can take down complete drug organizations," said
Jack Maple, a former deputy police commissioner. "And drugs drive
crime. It's as simple as that."

But Operation Condor also has raised new questions about the dangers
inherent in undercover police work and, in particular, the
buy-and-bust operations like the kind that resulted in the death
Thursday of Patrick Dorismond.

"I think the tactics that are being pursued really need to be
scrutinized," said City Councilman Sheldon Leffler (D-Queens),
chairman of the Council's Public Safety Committee.

"What was it about this man? Why was he chosen? My sense of it is that
he was a black man in a part of Manhattan where drugs have sometimes
been sold."

Dorismond, an off-duty security guard, apparently took offense when
Detective Anderson Moran approached and asked if he knew where to buy
marijuana. Detective Anthony Vasquez rushed in to help Moran and, in
the ensuing scuffle, fired a single fatal shot into Dorismond's chest.

At the time, neither Vasquez nor Moran was technically working
overtime as part of Operation Condor, which has added 520 plainclothes
officers to city streets every day since Jan. 17. But some of their
backup partners were, police sources said. The team had already made
eight drug arrests but apparently felt the need to make more.

Deputy Commissioner Marilyn Mode denied any connection between
overtime and arrest numbers.

But union officials contend Operation Condor implicitly ties future
overtime to the number of arrests a unit can make. The NYPD has
budgeted $24.3 million through June for Operation Condor overtime pay,
a potential boon in a department with starting salaries of $35,000 per
year.

"In order to continue working the overtime, you are expected to
produce," said Detectives' Endowment Association President Tom Scotto.