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GREENSBORO - More than three dozen black police officers filed discrimination complaints Friday with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the first step toward a civil lawsuit against the city.

The complaints come as city officials investigate actions of the defunct Special Intelligence Section under former Chief David Wray, who quit in January amid allegations of internal racial profiling and unfair treatment of black personnel.

Attorneys representing about 40 African American officers - just under half the number of black officers on the force - confirmed the filings, which are not public record, but declined to provide copies to media.

The filings were made after unsuccessful attempts by officers' lawyers to open talks with the city over the alleged civil rights violations, attorney Jason Knight said. "We felt forced," he said. "I told city leaders months ago that these officers had a lot of concerns and they felt like they tried to go through proper channels and that they weren't heard."

A lawyer on contract with city declined to comment on the EEOC complaints, saying he had not seen them. The attorney also refused to respond to Knight's contention that the city would not discuss the officers' concerns.

"It's not an appropriate discussion at this point," attorney Alan Duncan said Friday.

City Manager Mitchell Johnson and Interim Chief Tim Bellamy could not be reached Friday evening for comment.

"I haven't seen what the allegations are, and we probably won't," Kenneth Keller, one of Wray's attorneys, said Friday. "We're not in the loop."

Johnson said at a news conference following Wray's resignation in January that the actions of Special Intelligence against black officers created an "atmosphere of fear, distrust and suspicion, which undermined the department's morale and efficiency."

The city officers, represented by the Greensboro law firm of Jones, Free & Knight, each filed individual complaints with specifics to their own experiences of alleged discrimination under Wray.

EEOC will officially contact the city, at which point officials can elect to respond to the charges. A commission investigation follows if complaints are not settled through mediation.

Filing an EEOC complaint is necessary before plaintiffs can file racial discrimination civil lawsuits, Knight said.

The filings concluded a week of developments in the internal police probe. On Wednesday, Bellamy announced the discovery of "several" recordings of prominent African American community leaders, including attorneys, doctors, clergy and business owners.

Bellamy, in a news release, said he was investigating why the recordings were made. A day later, Keller publicly answered for Wray, saying one of the women on all of the tapes - and not the community leaders themselves - was the subject of an investigation.

The FBI is probing possible civil rights violations in an inquiry independent of the city. No criminal charges of administrative punishments have so far come from the scandal.

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