Giuliani Blasts Justice Findings of Racial Profiling by NYC Police

NEW YORK — Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani on Thursday angrily denied reported Justice Department findings that a division of the New York Police Department engaged in racial profiling while conducting an aggressive campaign of street searches.

The inquiry by federal prosecutors began after the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant killed by four members of the Police Department’s elite Street Crime Unit.

In a 30-minute tirade Thursday at City Hall, Giuliani said that if officers ignored the race of possible suspects, the city’s crime rate would skyrocket.

“There is no racial profiling in the New York City Police Department,” the mayor said. “We will fight this case anywhere.”

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno declined to comment.

Under civil rights laws, the Justice Department could ask a judge to order broad changes in the operations of the NYPD’s Street Crime Unit and possible oversight by a federal monitor.

Federal prosecutors based their findings, reported by the New York Times and New York 1 television, on a statistical analysis of people searched by the unit’s officers because they were suspected of committing crimes or carrying guns.