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GREENSBORO - A department employee under former Chief David Wray secretly recorded and saved conversations with several community leaders, including clergy, attorneys, doctors and business owners.

In addition, current police officials said Wednesday, that same non sworn employee attended some "meetings with members of the community" during which discussions were also recorded.

It is unclear whether any law was broken by the employee, whose actions were uncovered as the city investigated the now defunct Special Intelligence Section, used by Wray to surveil several officers accused of misconduct.

"It happened in my office ... and I'm mad about it," said Joe Williams, an attorney who represented a black police lieutenant repeatedly investigated by the squad and who said he was on one of the recordings. "But I'll tell you one thing - I would not have known about it had the city not disclosed it to me."

The squad, reorganized after Wray resigned in January, was known to the rank-and-file as the "secret police." The FBI is conducting its own investigation into possible civil rights violations.

Interim Chief Tim Bellamy told command staff Tuesday of the recordings. The audio files were located as the city investigated how Special Intelligence operated under Wray and former Deputy Chief Randall Brady.

Locke Clifford, an attorney for Wray, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Bellamy declined to comment on the nature or number of recordings. He said he has spoken with some of the people on the audio files about their conversations.

He left messages for those people he wasn't able to reach.

"We have to show the public we still care about our jobs and want them to have trust in us," he said.

One person he did reach was Jill Williams, executive director of the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission. He told her that she had been recorded, though she didn't know when or by whom.

"I was surprised that this would be going on. It definitely felt like a violation," she said Wednesday. "And I was surprised to hear that the Greensboro Police Department is still engaging in actions like this in 2005."

The Rev. Mazie Ferguson, president of the Greensboro Pulpit Forum, a group of clergy from 120 African American churches, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Wray resigned in January after city officials confronted him with a report by outside consultants and city attorneys who concluded he had "crippled" the department by meting out harsher discipline for black officers and through a climate of intimidation.

North Carolina statutes allow someone to tape conversations without another's knowledge if the person doing the recording is part of the dialogue. That is what Joe Williams described as happening to him.

Williams said two women - one white, one black - visited his office a year ago under the auspices of discussing a city program regarding violent criminal offenders. He said he believes that is when he was recorded.

"It was done to me," Williams said, "and it was done for no reason whatsoever that makes sense to me."

He declined to identify the women or offer details of the conversations but he said the recordings were made before he raised allegations that a client, Lt. James Hinson, was being targeted by Special Intelligence for internal review.

The revelations about Hinson, a high-profile black officer and former officer of the year, began a series of events ending with Wray's departure.

Staff writer Lorraine Ahearn contributed to this story.

Contact Eric J.S. Townsend at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com