POLICE LEADER TO MOVE 300 TO PATROL DUTY SHIFT OF OFFICERS

The city's new police commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, plans to move at
least 300 officers from quality-of-life enforcement to street patrols as
part of a larger reassignment that will also beef up the city's
overburdened detective squads, police officials said yesterday.

Mr. Kerik laid out his plans for the redeployment of about 500 officers
during a meeting of senior patrol commanders on Thursday, the officials
said. The meeting came two days after he announced that he was removing
some of the department's top leaders. At the meeting, Mr. Kerik told the
city's eight patrol borough commanders that he wanted more officers and
detectives in the streets, and that he wanted to let rank- and-file
officers know that hard work would lead to promotion, the officials said.

To get more officers on the streets, Mr. Kerik told the commanders, he will
move 300 to 450 officers out of the so-called tracer units, which saturate
neighborhoods after intensive undercover drug initiatives and focus on
quality-of-life violations, like public drinking and urination and
vandalism. The purpose of these units, which include 900 officers, is to
stabilize troubled neighborhoods and maintain the gains won through
narcotics crackdowns.

The tracer unit officers selected to return to patrol will be selected from
those who have made the least arrests and shown the least initiative, one
senior official said.

The official said that Mr. Kerik's plans, which have been approved by Mayor
Rudolph W. Giuliani, should not be seen as a change in the mayor's focus on
quality-of-life crimes and street disorder because Mr. Kerik is convinced
the police can achieve the same results with fewer officers.

In addition to moving more officers into the patrol and detective ranks, a
primary goal of the redeployments is to tackle the dismal morale that has
been plaguing the department, the official said. The new commissioner feels
it is important to re-establish a career path through which officers who
excel can win promotion, officials familiar with Mr. Kerik's thinking said.

Toward that end, he has asked the commanders to select the highest achiever
in each of the 76 precincts and in Housing and Transit Bureau commands to
work in detective squads, which have long been understaffed. Once in the
squads, the officers will be on the traditional 18- month track to
promotion to a detective's position.

At the same time, 70 detectives from narcotics and 10 from the 218- member
Street Crime Unit will also be assigned to precinct detective commands. The
combination of reassigning one officer from each precinct, and the transfer
of the narcotics and street crime detectives, will increase the staffing in
every detective squad in the city by two investigators, the official said.

Thomas J. Scotto, the president of the detectives union, the Detectives
Endowment Association, praised the move, saying that he has long sought an
increase in the number of investigators assigned to precinct squads. He
said that for nearly a year, citywide, the squads had been short 400
detectives. "We're glad to see they're finally addressing this issue," he said.

Of the 7,300 detectives in the department, only about 1,100 are assigned to
the precinct units, which investigate serious crimes, including murder and
robbery.

In addition to raising the morale of energetic and productive officers, the
moves are also meant to stir up the officers who do little - and let them
know life will be uncomfortable if they fail to contribute more.

In the past, tracer units, like the Department's Street Crime Unit, have
been criticized for conducting random and unjustified searches. Four
plainclothes officers from the Street Crime Unit shot and killed Amadou
Diallo in the Bronx, leading to changes that included returning some of the
officers to uniform and restructuring the citywide unit so that officers in
each borough report to commanders there.

The police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, has also
criticized the tracer units, complaining that the department assigned too
many patrol officers to the teams.