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GREENSBORO — A former police detective, now under indictment, compared his covert role in former Chief David Wray's administration to "the CIA" in part of a tape recording the City Council released late Tuesday.

In one of a stack of Internal Affairs records that the council voted to release, former Special Intelligence Officer Scott Sanders told a resident his role was "probably the only one like it under this department."

"I go to a lot of strange places, and I look through a lot of strange things," Sanders said in the recorded interview, "a lot of sensitive things."

Sanders, charged in September with obstruction of justice and computer hacking, was part of an earlier taped conversation with former Deputy Chief Randall Brady. On that tape, Brady discusses ways for Sanders to get a meddlesome neighbor to move out of a condo building where their boss, former Chief David Wray, lived at the time.

The taped conversation was among the documents City Manager Mitchell Johnson asked the council to release Tuesday, seeking to defend his handling of Wray's 2006 departure.

Citing "confusion" and "misinformation" on the part of the public, Councilwoman Yvonne Johnson introduced a resolution to make an exception to personnel law and release the records.

Only Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, herself a former Greensboro police officer, opposed the motion, saying it could have a chilling effect on officers' trust in the Internal Affairs process.

The information release was another effort on the part of city leaders to restore public trust in the police department amid an ongoing series of articles in the weekly Rhinoceros Times.

The now 40-part series alleges widespread misconduct on the part of black police officers, including Lt. James Hinson.

Among other items released Tuesday was an Internal Affairs investigation of Hinson, the officer who touched off the scandal after finding a tracker placed on his cruiser in June 2005. Hinson had been investigated in a range of allegations, including links to drug dealers, association with prostitutes and having sex in his squad car.

In reality, according to the records released Tuesday, Hinson had by that time been twice cleared of the allegations, once by the Special Intelligence Unit and again by Internal Affairs.

Mitchell Johnson said he and former City Manager Ed Kitchen had received assurances from Wray that the focus on Hinson was the result of a highly sensitive, multijurisdictional criminal investigation that Wray dared not compromise.

In September 2005, Wray ordered a third inivestigation of Hinson to be done by two former Internal Affairs officers, D.C. Thacker and D.A. Wyrick, hired back solely for that purpose.

Their report, released Tuesday night, would ultimately clear Hinson for a third time, although Mitchell Johnson would not learn of that finding until months later.

Thacker and Wyrick reached the following conclusions about Hinson's activities:

* They "exonerated" Hinson from the charge of conducting private business on duty.

* They deemed "unfounded" charges of being untruthful when questioned by a superior, having sex in a police vehicle and associating with a known criminal, other than the sale of his house to that person.

* They found "not sustained" charges of working off-duty when scheduled to be on-duty, failure to report an accident involving his police cruiser and recommending his own security company to a local restaurant.

* They also found "not sustained" another charge of associating with a known criminal, a woman whose name was redacted.

Mitchell Johnson said Tuesday that according to Wray, Thacker and Wyrick's "professionalism and capability were without question." Johnson said Tuesday that he didn't learn until November 2005 that the two hire-backs had cleared Hinson.

Johnson said he didn't read their report until Wray resigned in January 2006.

In response to the ongoing Rhinoceros Times' articles, Johnson told the council Tuesday, members of the public have told him Wray was "just trying to clean up the department by getting rid of dirty cops."

He said Tuesday that rather than Wray reinvestigating old allegations against Hinson, Wray should have been investigating allegations of misconduct by his own command staff.

"I believe that if Chief Wray had taken the initiative back in the summer of 2005 to undertake a real investigation of the concerns brought to him by very credible people about the Special Intelligence Division," Johnson said, "we would not be in the position we are in today."

That position, he observed, is that, as a result of Wray's actions, the city now faces:

* Indictments against Sanders and his former boss, Sgt. Tom Fox.

* An ongoing inquiry by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of charges of racial discrimination against black officers.

* A federal lawsuit by a woman claiming she was held against her will by Special Intelligence officers.

* A police academy under probation for misleading statements provided by the academy's director, an allegation that Wray assured Mitchell Johnson at the time had no substance.

Tuesday's release of information came after an hourlong closed session by council members, six of whom are running for re-election this fall.

Despite sometimes intense public criticism voiced at voter forums, Mitchell Johnson said the board had done the right thing.

"They have paid a heavy price as individuals to do what's right," he said. "But I'm absolutely sure that after all of the lawsuits and court cases are complete, our community will fully appreciate their leadership in these matters."

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

Contact Margaret Moffett Banks at 373-7031 or mbanks@news-record.com