CIVILIAN COMPLAINTS ABOUT POLICE RISE

Allegations of police misconduct to the Civilian Complaint Review Board
rose in first four months of this year, a jump that comes after several
years of declines, according to data obtained from the board yesterday.

Over all, the board's data showed an 8 percent increase in complaints, to
1,607, for January through April, compared with the same period in 2000. It
showed the sharpest spike in complaints, a 32 percent increase, last month.

Until now, the decline in complaints had been unbroken since 1997, with the
total number of complaints for last year, 4,121, falling 14 percent from
the number in 1999.

Police officials had given the credit to improved management and patrol
tactics, but some critics of the police said the declines reflected
skepticism among the public about the complaint procedure.

Officials reacted cautiously yesterday to the increase in complaints,
saying they might be an anomaly or might reflect election-year publicity
about the complaint process. The board itself is conducting town hall-style
meetings to inform the public of its right to file complaints. The first
was on April 11 in Queens, and a second is to be held tonight at Public
School 31 in Staten Island.

The board's data for April show that the biggest jump in complaints — to
36, from 16 in April 2000 — came in northern Manhattan. Police officials
said several of the complaints might have been prompted by a drug crackdown
in March and April in Hamilton Heights.

Even critics of the police were cautious about interpreting the figures.
"Two months of data should not suggest that police conduct is getting
worse," said Dennis M. Walcott, president of the New York Urban League.