Among the most effective strategies, one police captain wrote, was the seizure of demonstrators on 5th Avenue who were described as "obviously potential rioters."

The reports provide a glimpse of internal police evaluations and strategies on security and free speech issues that have provoked sharp debate between city officials and political demonstrators since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The reports also made clear what the police have yet to discuss publicly: The department uses undercover officers to infiltrate political gatherings and monitor behavior.

Indeed, one of the documents--a draft report from the department's Disorder Control Unit--proposed in blunt terms the resumption of a covert tactic that had been disavowed by the city and the federal government 30 years earlier. Under the heading of recommendations, the draft suggested, "Utilize undercover officers to distribute misinformation within the crowds."

Asked about the proposal, Paul Browne, chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said Thursday: "The NYPD does not use police officers in any capacity to distribute misinformation."

Use of police vehicles praised

Browne also said the "proactive" arrests referred to in the report--numbering about 30--involved protesters with pipes and masks who he said presented an obvious threat.

In another report, a police inspector praised the "staging of massive amounts" of armored vehicles, prisoner wagons and jail buses in the view of the demonstrators, writing that the sight "would cause them to be alarmed."

Besides the draft report, the documents released Thursday included four final reports written by commanders to assess police performance during the World Economic Forum, which convened in New York from Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, 2002.

Security was extremely tight around Midtown Manhattan, where the delegates to the economic forum were meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria, and demonstrators were kept blocks from the hotel.

Officials spoke of violence during anti-globalism protests at other high-profile gatherings in Seattle and Genoa, Italy. But in the end, as one of the police reports noted, "the amount of confrontation and number of arrests were lower than expected."

Parts of that document and others were made public, over the objections of the city, by a federal magistrate, Gabriel Gorenstein, who said the excerpts went to the heart of a lawsuit brought by 16 people arrested at an animal-rights demonstration during the economic forum. The police said they were blocking the sidewalk and had refused to obey an order to disperse; the demonstrators said no one told them to move.

Many of the issues in the animal-rights case, which challenge broad police tactics and arrest strategies, resonate in more than 100 other lawsuits brought against the city by demonstrators who were arrested at war protests, bicycle rallies and during the Republican National Convention.

Daniel Perez, the lawyer representing the people arrested at the animal-rights demonstration, argued that the police tactics "punish, control and curtail the lawful exercise of 1st Amendment activities."

The Police Department and the city have said that preserving public order is essential to protecting the civil rights of demonstrators and bystanders.

Opponent: Files indicate policy

Perez maintains that the police documents, taken together, show a policy of pre-emptive arrests. The draft report discussed how early arrests could shape future events. "The arrests made at West 59th Street and 5th Avenue set a `tone' with the demonstrators and their possible plans at other demonstrations," the report stated.

The same tactic is cited in another report, dated Feb. 8, 2002, and signed by Capt. Robert Bonifaci, commander of the Queens North Task Force. Bonifaci wrote, "It should be noted that a large part of the success in policing the major demonstration on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2002, was due in part to the proactive arrest policy that was instituted at the start of the march at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue, and directed toward demonstrators who were obviously potential rioters."

Elaborating on the report, Browne, the police spokesman, said plainclothes officers saw a group of demonstrators put on masks as they drew near the Plaza Hotel, then take out metal pipes and try to rush police lines.

Demonstrators arrested during the economic forum were held by the police for up to 40 hours without seeing a judge--twice as long as people accused of murder, rape and robbery arrested on those same days, Perez said.

Browne said the arrests were processed as quickly as possible and that protesters were not singled out for longer detention.

The reports, which were heavily edited at the city's request, also discuss the use of undercover officers at the protests. Capt. Timothy Hardiman wrote that "the use of undercovers from narcotics provided useful information."