Brodsky, Rice clash over anti-drug surveillance

Assemb. Richard Brodsky of Westchester has turned a harsh spotlight on what he calls Nassau County's "electronic stop-and-frisk programs" under District Attorney Kathleen Rice, one of his four rivals in the Democratic primary race for state attorney general.

"Innocent drivers passing through certain neighborhoods had pictures taken of their cars," Brodsky notes. Their license plates were scanned by electronic devices that reveal the registrants' names and addresses. If those addresses were not from the vicinity, letters were sent indicating the police's knowledge of the autos' presence in the area.

In recent campaign debates and forums, Brodsky contrasted this practice - carried out as part of an assault on open-air drug markets - with Rice's praising a new state law banning authorities from keeping names and addresses of hundreds of thousands of people who are detained by police but not arrested.

Brodsky's words prompted an angry rebuke Friday from a top prosecutor in Rice's office - who called it "incredibly arrogant and disrespectful" for him to believe he knows "what's best for this neighborhood."

The program drew wide notice more than two years ago when carried out in the Terrace Avenue area of Hempstead. Police sent car owners from outside the 11550 ZIP code letters saying their vehicles were observed in an area under surveillance.

"If you were aware that your vehicle was present at this location for legitimate purposes, please disregard this letter," the missives would say.

The Nassau chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union objected. But Hempstead Police Chief Joseph Wing told Newsday in January 2008: "This is not Big Brother. I'm not looking into people's living rooms . . . It's . . . to knock out the demand side of the illegal drug business."

Meg Reiss, Rice's chief assistant district attorney, termed the license-plate program "completely different from any aspect" of the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk tactics.

Plate numbers in public view "are all that's kept by police departments. To access more information," she said, "officers need a specific reason . . . Ironically, Westchester County's been doing this for some time. Brodsky clearly doesn't know the facts or have any idea what he's talking about."

But Brodsky insists it is Rice for whom "the reality on the ground does not match her statements at the debates."