POLICE PROTEST RELEASE OF OFFICER LIST BY COUNCIL

The timeworn debate over how best to move police officers to patrol
assignments from desk jobs ignited a round of bickering between the City
Council and the Bloomberg administration yesterday, with police officials
storming out of a hearing after a Council committee member released a list
of officers who could be transferred.

The tensions escalated at a morning hearing in which members of the
Council's Civil Service and Labor Committee were questioning police
officials about efforts to replace officers in desk jobs with civilians. At
one point, the chairman of the committee released a list of 1,079 officers
- -- by name and shield number -- who were said to be doing jobs that could
be done by civilians. Among them were cleaners, janitors and stationhouse
managers.

The police officials -- including Assistant Commissioner Edward Allocco,
Deputy Chief Thomas Sweeney and Inspector John Gerrish -- left shortly
after the 52-page list was released. They said that the move was a breach
of the officers' safety and security, and also that they did not know where
it came from or if it was accurate. Committee aides quickly tried to
retrieve all the lists.

Later in the day, the debate continued. After the administration heard
about the hearing, aides to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called the staff of
Gifford Miller, who is the speaker of the Council. "Staff here made it
known, in the strongest terms possible, that we have grave concerns about
this behavior," said Bill Cunningham, the mayor's communications director.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that handing out the list was
reckless because the list included the names of narcotics officers,
Internal Affairs Bureau officers and others who may be involved in
undercover investigations.

"It certainly put people at risk, in this time particularly after 9/11,"
said Mr. Kelly, who said Mr. Miller told him he was upset by the release of
the list. "To indiscriminately put out officers' names to me is the height
of bad judgment."

Christopher D. Policano, who is Mr. Miller's chief spokesman, said that
Allan W. Jennings Jr., the committee chairman, had the list handed out to
reporters without either Mr. Miller's or the Central Council staff's
knowledge or consent. "It was an inappropriate decision to release the list
in that format and certainly there was no desire to compromise police
security," said Mr. Policano, adding that it would not happen again.

However, he said, the purpose of the Civil Service and Labor Committee
hearing was to address a valid issue, one that critics said the police
department has allowed to fester. Police officers earn more than civilians.

"The Council has long believed that civilians, not able-bodied police
officers, should perform N.Y.P.D. administrative tasks" and that more
civilian employees "would save the city millions of dollars in police
overtime costs," Mr. Policano said.

The uproar was unusual in the generally cordial atmosphere of Council
hearings, where administration officials are peppered with questions and
sometimes get testy, but seldom storm from the room. Recently, there have
been escalating tensions between the administration and the Council over
proposed budget cuts.

Certainly, civilians' working for the department has never seemed like a
hot-button issue. For many years, the Police Department has been going to
hearings where Council leaders recommended that the department could save
tremendous amounts of money by giving administrative jobs to civilians,
freeing up officers to go on patrol.

The department now employs more than 14,000 civilians, said Deputy Chief
Sweeney.

Since 1997, civilian employment in the department has increased. However,
in some areas, the department has not made progress in replacing uniformed
officers with civilians.

Under Mayor Bloomberg's financial plan, the department would let the number
of uniformed officers fall by 1,600 positions though it would hire 800
civilians, beginning July 1, and move 800 police officers into enforcement
duties.

But the Council has said that even more positions could be turned over to
civilians and Mr. Jennings yesterday said that as many as 4,205 jobs could
be transferred in the entire Police Department, saving $226 million a year.

The debate may be moot for now, however. If the city does not get an extra
$1.3 billion in savings and revenues, the plan to hire the 800 civilians
would be eliminated.