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GREENSBORO - Leaders of the local African American clergy are calling for release of a "black book" photo array used by city police and a full account of the activities of the department's Special Intelligence Section.

In a Tuesday news conference, elected officers of the Greensboro Pulpit Forum said they had grown weary of the piecemeal release of information on circumstances surrounding former police Chief David Wray's resignation last month, and they urged the city to remove "the tattered shroud of confidentiality."

In a statement read by the group's president, the Rev. Mazie Ferguson, and approved by the pastors of 120 congregations, the ministers questioned why private detectives were used by the covert squad to bypass Internal Affairs, which normally investigates police corruption.

"These allegations beg the question," Ferguson said, "How far did the intimidation, alleged to have existed within the ... police department, go?"

The City Council last month voted 9-0 to let the manager release some details about Wray's departure, citing a rare exception to state personnel privacy law: a need to restore public trust.

But City Manager Mitchell Johnson has said that since that vote, and his initial accounts of Wray's departure, both an FBI inquiry and a police administrative review now prevent him from releasing new details.

Interim Police Chief Tim Bellamy, who said he had not been contacted by the Pulpit Forum, would not release the "black book " unless a judge were to order its release.

The book in question includes head shots of 114 black males, including at least 19 city officers. Wray maintains that the photos were assembled for one purpose only: A woman reported that she was sexually assaulted by an unidentified black policeman, and the 19 photos were of the uniformed black officers working that particular shift.

However, Bellamy said Tuesday that he has found no record of such an assault, whether in the form of a police report, a tape of the woman's statement or any previous computer search of the black officers on that shift.

In Tuesday's news conference, the ministers emphasized that they did not see the situation as "a personality conflict" between Wray and Lt. James Hinson, whose discovery of a tracking device on his cruiser first brought the internal investigations to light in June.

Said the Rev. Greg Headen, an officer in the Pulpit Forum: "This city seems to have a history and pattern of solving problems by demonizing one or two people. The problems go deeper than that."

The ministers also said that former City Manager Ed Kitchen appeared to have been "unaware and/or unconcerned" about the problems before he retired in August after nine years as manager. Kitchen, reached Tuesday, said he had been briefed last summer on the matter by Johnson.

"I was aware of the allegations that were being made," Kitchen said. "At the time, we felt that proper procedures had been followed."

Johnson, Kitchen's successor, was deputy city manager last summer, and the police chief reported directly to him.

Johnson has said that Wray reassured him at the time that the Hinson case was part of an ongoing federal investigation. Johnson said Wray also told him he knew of no "black book."

On both of those points, Johnson has said that a city-commissioned report by Risk Management Associates disputed Wray's account. The report has yet to be released.

The ministers said Tuesday that such documents should be made public in the interest of maintaining "viable and honest law enforcement" in the city.

"We believe that the public's right to the highest integrity," Ferguson said, "outweighs any secrecy which impugns that integrity."

Staff writer Eric J.S. Townsend contributed to this report.

Contact Lorraine Ahearn at 373-7334 or lahearn@news-record.com