New York, NY —

WNYC has obtained a letter in which the Police Department says it's received almost 2700 complaints against its school safety agents over the past five years. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

The New York Civil Liberties Union and student groups have been complaining about what they consider increasingly aggressive tactics by safety agents. Mayor Bloomberg's administration has taken a hard line against school violence, sending extra officers into problem schools and also deploying random metal detectors.

But despite requests from media organizations including WNYC, the police department has never released any data about the number of complaints involving the safety agents. However, it turns out that in June Commissioner Kelly sent a letter to City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson revealing that his department received 2670 complaints since 2002.

He also said 27 percent of those had been substantiated - a much higher rate than complaints that go to the Civilian Complaint Review Board involving police officers. Kelly also added that the number of complaints against the agents is relatively low in a school system of more than a million students. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.