Council Leaders Want Fewer Names on List of Police Stops

clipped from www.nytimes.com Council Leaders Want Fewer Names on List of Police Stops By AL BAKER Two City Council leaders urged Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly on Wednesday to stop keeping a database of people who are stopped, questioned and sometimes frisked in public, but who are neither arrested nor given summonses. The lawmakers, Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Peter F. Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, also want Mr. Kelly to remove the names of those arrested but later found not guilty. The request came in a tersely worded letter that reflected on how the lawmakers had not gotten the answers they want and that “urgent action” must be taken, Ms. Quinn said in an interview. If the department complies, its database will consist only of the names of those convicted of crimes. Last year, Mr. Kelly acknowledged the existence of the database. The names and addresses of people stopped by police officers — more than 1,500 a day — are entered if the person provides his or her identity,