NYTimes

“Outbursts are prohibited,” City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. warned as a hearing on bills centered largely on the New York Police Department’s controversial stop-and-frisk practices began on Wednesday morning.

But it did not take long for the calm to be disturbed. The hearing, which stretched on for nearly six hours, featured a series of outbursts, squabbles and sharp exchanges.

The hearing, before the Public Safety Committee, included testimony from about a dozen people on four bills aimed at police reform — three of which deal with street stops. The fourth bill would create an Office of Inspector General to monitor the Police Department, a measure both Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly oppose, arguing there is enough oversight already.

Most of the negative remarks were directed at Michael Best, the mayor’s counselor, who testified against the bills on behalf of Mr. Bloomberg and the department.

Councilman Jumaane D. Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat and a lead sponsor of the bills, collectively known as the Community Safety Act, voiced his frustration that Commissioner Kelly and Mr. Bloomberg did not attend the hearing. Mr. Williams likened them to 5-year-olds throwing temper tantrums and refusing to come to the table.

Mr. Best shot back: “We have discussed these issues with the Council on many, many occasions, and it’s unfair to characterize what we are doing here as a temper tantrum, which is wholly inaccurate.”

Mr. Williams responded, “There is a temper tantrum,” as Speaker Christine C. Quinn, who attended the hearing, placed her hand on his shoulder in an apparent gesture to calm him down.

“We’re not going away until changes have occurred,” he said.

The bills that address the stop-and-frisk tactic would do several things:

¶ Require police officers, when conducting stops, to identify themselves, provide their name and rank, and explain the reason for the stop.

¶ Seek to add teeth to an existing ban on racial profiling.

¶ Require that officers inform individuals of their right to refuse a search and obtain proof of their consent, if granted, in cases in which there is no other legal basis to search an individual.

During 15 minutes of testimony, Mr. Best argued that the Council did not have the authority to regulate the powers and duties of police officers, which, he said, were governed by state criminal law and federal constitutional law. He said the legislation would “place a number of burdens on police officers that are impractical” and bog down the city in costly lawsuits. He also expressed strong opposition to an inspector general.

“The N.Y.P.D. is already subject to a large amount of oversight by a number of different entities,” Mr. Best testified. He added that the bill would “violate the prohibition on curtailing the mayor’s authority.”

Councilman Brad Lander, a sponsor of the bills, called Mr. Best’s arguments “preposterous.”

“Every new law we passed would be considered curtailing,” Mr. Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat, said. “We should pack up and go home and not have a City Council.”

For more than two hours, several council members asked Mr. Best pointed questions. Councilman Robert Jackson, a Democrat from Manhattan, pressed Mr. Best on how to address growing anger among minorities over stop-and-frisk practices. He bellowed: “It’s not working and it needs to be totally reformed.”

“People are suffering,” Mr. Jackson added, as the crowd cheered and clapped. The sergeant-at-arms ordered quiet amid the pounding of a gavel.

Mr. Vallone, a Democrat from Queens, chided Mr. Jackson, saying, “This isn’t a forum to make speeches.”

That comment prompted Councilwoman Helen D. Foster, a Bronx Democrat, to say, “That should also apply to you, Peter.”

When Mr. Vallone began to respond, Ms. Foster said, “Hey, hey, Peter, I don’t work for you. I am not one of your boys. You will not talk to me like that.”

Ms. Quinn tried to broker peace. “I think it’s important to understand how emotional this topic is to people.”

Ms. Foster then suggested that if Mr. Vallone were a minority, he would be able to better empathize. “If his father were an 88-year-old,” she said, “who’s being pulled over and called ‘boy’ and fitting a description, then it would be different.”

At the start of the hearing, the first of three addressing stop-and-frisk practices, Ms. Quinn said changes were needed.

“I’ve long said that although I believe stop, question and frisk should remain a tool in the toolbox of police officers, that when you have almost 800,000 stops at the peak, targeting almost exclusively African-American and Latino men, in neighborhoods which are lower income, that is a problem,” she said.

She said the legislation must be reviewed. Ms. Quinn, who is likely to be a candidate for mayor next year, has repeatedly declined to say whether she supported the bills. When asked about the subject during a news conference Tuesday, she said: “I support the idea of ongoing reform. I have not yet taken a position on these four specific bills.”