Investigators began asking on Wednesday for tapes from cameras in the building, but have been rebuffed by administrators
The graduate school where a noose was found on the door of a black professor agreed Thursday to turn over security videotape after withholding it while police sought a subpoena to acquire the evidence.
Police claim that Teachers College — Columbia University’s graduate school of education — had agreed to give up the tape without a court order Wednesday. New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said police officials were “disappointed and surprised” by the delay in a case that rocked the Ivy League campus.
Teachers College spokeswoman Diane Dobry said the school wanted to work in “the spirit of cooperation” with police, but privacy laws required it to demand a court order. Since a subpoena was obtained, “We are giving them everything,” she said.
Investigators plan to review several hours of tape from up to seven digital security cameras in and around the building where the noose was discovered early Tuesday morning on the doorknob of the office of Madonna Constantine, Browne said.
Police hope the tapes will help identify possible suspects. They also were testing the 4-foot-long piece of twine for DNA evidence and interviewing students and faculty, but they had no suspects.
Students, faculty and administrators denounced the attack on Constantine, a professor of education and psychology who has written extensively about race.
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