NEW YORK - The New York Civil Liberties Union Monday said it has been “forced” sue the NYPD for access to public information, this time challenging the Department’s refusal to disclose information about the role of race in police shootings.

In October 2007, the NYCLU filed a Freedom of Information Law request with the NYPD for records identifying the race of everyone shot by police officers since January 1997. After months of stalling, according to the civil liberties group, the NYPD ultimately denied the request in May 2008, forcing the NYCLU to file its lawsuit today in State Supreme Court.

“The NYPD’s growing obsession with secrecy is unacceptable and incompatible with open government,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director.  “Safe streets require mutual trust between the police and the community, yet the NYPD insists on hiding the most basic and important information from the public. The role of race in police shootings is a source of deep concern – and outrage – for many New Yorkers. Hiding this information doesn’t make this concern go away – it just further frays New York’s ability to trust its police department.”

NYPD shooting reports released in 1996 and 1997 show that 89.5 percent of shooting victims during those two years were black or Latino. The Department stopped reporting information about race in police shootings in 1998, after four white NYPD police officers killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black man, in a hail of 41 bullets. At the same time, the Department started reporting the breed of dogs that officers shot.

The issue of race in police shootings reemerged in November 2006 after Department officers fired 50 bullets at Sean Bell, an unarmed black man, killing him just hours before he was to get married. The NYCLU filed its FOIL request as part of an effort to determine if race is playing an inappropriate role in police shootings.