City Seeks Power To Videotape Political Groups

New York City asked a federal judge to rethink a 22 year-old agreement that sets limits on the police department's authority to conduct surveillance on political organizations.

The agreement "violates fundamental principles," a lawyer for the city, Gail Donoghue told the judge, Charles Haight III of U.S. District Court at a hearing yesterday. "Consent decrees should come to an end at some point."

The consent decree, which dates back to 1985, has been invoked by civil rights attorneys who are trying to use it to stop the police from videotaping political rallies.

"The fact is that they were following people who were engaged in political expression," a civil rights attorney, Jethro Eisenstein, said at the hearing.