OFFICIALS TO REVIEW POLICE CHASE THROUGH CROWDED SCHOOLYARD

Police officials said yesterday that they would review the tactics employed
Monday by plainclothes officers, including at least one with his gun drawn,
who chased a drug suspect through a Brooklyn schoolyard crowded with
children.

Parents angered by the incident at P.S. 305 in Bedford-Stuyvesant
confronted police commanders at two meetings in the school yesterday to
question whether the officers, in their pursuit of a suspected marijuana
dealer, had lost sight of the possible danger to the children.

"The parents were angry and they were frustrated because they could not get
answers to their questions," said the president of the school's
parent-teacher association, Jacqueline Ferrell.

Three children were hurt, none seriously, as many of the 200 students who
were in the yard during a lunch-time recess panicked and scrambled to get
away from the chase. Although no shots were fired, the incident has
resonated in part because the officers involved work for the Gang
Investigations Division, the unit involved in the shooting death of Patrick
M. Dorismond this month.

Although police officials have said the children were never in danger,
Commissioner Howard Safir said, "We're taking a look to see if there was a
violation of procedure or a violation of judgment."

Several political leaders and school officials said they had already
decided the incident was evidence of poor judgment, and possibly poor
training, on the part of the police. William C. Thompson Jr., president of
the Board of Education, called the police action "irresponsible" and in a
letter to Mr. Safir suggested that disciplinary measures be taken against
the officers.

The City Council speaker, Peter F. Vallone, called the chase inconceivable.
"Logic dictates that drawn firearms, fleeing drug dealers and a playground
filled with children is a dangerous situation," Mr. Vallone said in his own
letter to Mr. Safir.

According to the police, the incident began when one of four men arrested
near the school on drug-related charges ran off and two officers chased him
in an unmarked van. At one point, the van crashed into a tree, creating a
loud noise that many children mistook for gunfire, school officials said.

The suspect then ran into the schoolyard, where the two officers caught
him. Some school officials said they believed that as many as three
officers had drawn their weapons, but police officials said it was only one
and that the officer had kept it pointed toward the ground.

Police officials said that the unit was trying to eliminate drug activity
in a park adjacent to the school and that the officers did not know if the
suspect was armed. "It is not uncommon for drug dealers to carry guns,"
said Deputy Chief Thomas Fahey.

Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association,
said the city had been overtaken in recent weeks by an antipolice
atmosphere in which officers' actions were being unfairly second-guessed.
The danger, he said, is "those officers are going to second-guess
themselves and that might result in injury to the police officers or
others."