NYPD TO BARE 'STOP & FRISK' DATA

The Police Department is scrambling to compile a mountain of data on
its controversial "stop and frisk" tactics - and a source familiar
with the process said the vast majority of cases involve minorities.

The source cautioned that the data do not necessarily indicate a bias
on the part of police - since many of the stop-and-frisks were done by
cops looking for crime suspects answering to a specific
description.

But the source, who has reviewed a portion of the stop-and-frisk data
from last year in the Manhattan precincts north of 59th Street,
estimated minorities were the targets in as many as 90 percent of the
cases.

The NYPD has hired a temp agency to process information from some
150,000 stop-and-frisk reports - also known as UF250 reports - filed
by cops last year.

The reports come from the entire department - not just the
controversial Street Crime Unit, which has come under scrutiny since
Feb. 4, when four members of the elite group killed unarmed West
African immigrant Amadou Diallo in a barrage of 41 shots.

Since then, minority leaders have charged that a disproportionate
number of black and Hispanic youths are stopped, frisked and
questioned by cops on the street in a pattern that amounts to harassment.

The SCU frequently used the tactic to search for concealed
weapons.

The information on stop-and-frisk incidents is being prepared for a
bevy of probes into police tactics launched since the Diallo shooting.

Police Commissioner Howard Safir has promised to present the City
Council with detailed information on several years worth of
stop-and-frisks, at a hearing April 19.

But sources said cops wouldn't even have just last year's information
ready by then.

"We are reviewing the materials very diligently. Accuracy is our
emphasis and we hope to complete it as soon as possible," Safir's
spokeswoman, Marilyn Mode, said.

She refused to go into specific findings or discuss the number of
minority subjects of the stop-and-frisks.

"We have not completed our input or analysis, and it is premature to
make any conclusion," Mode said.

The laborious, round-the-clock task of entering the information into
computers started about a week ago, sources said.

And 100 sergeants and lieutenants have been specially detailed to go
over all the information typed in by the temporary workers, to check
it for accuracy.

The entire operation is taking place on the eighth floor of One Police
Plaza in the city's backup 911 center - drawing the ire of 911
officials who want that facility available in case of an emergency.

The information will also be handed over to investigators looking into
NYPD practices for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, U.S. Attorney
Mary Jo White and the federal Justice Department.