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The Miami Beach Black Host Committee says police monitoring of rappers is offensive and could hurt relations with black residents and visitors.

Members of the Miami Beach Black Host Committee, a group created by the city's mayor to help improve its rapport with black residents and visitors, say they are deeply offended by the police department's monitoring of rappers and their associates.

A story in The Herald this week detailed how detectives from the Miami Beach and Miami police departments have been quietly keeping tabs on rap artists, including 50 Cent and Ja Rule, since 2001.

The host committee will hold a meeting today to outline their concerns and will present them to Mayor David Dermer and Police Chief Donald DeLucca early next week, said committee Chairman Henry Crespo.

Crespo said the policing tactics could damage the goodwill the committee has tried to develop between the city and blacks.

''These folks are coming here to have fun, they're spending money, buying bottles,'' Crespo said. ``Did they shoot somebody last week, have they been selling drugs, have they been involved in prostitution, have they killed anybody? If not, then what warrants this violation of a person's privacy?''

DeLucca and police spokesman Robert Hernandez did not return calls for comment on Thursday.

POLICE CONCERNS

In previous interviews with The Herald, Assistant Police Chief Charles Press said the department would be remiss if it did not monitor rivalries within the industry.

''What would law enforcement be if we closed our eyes? Our job is to know as much about things that could hurt innocent people,'' Press said.

Crespo said he is also deeply concerned that the department has only one black police officer in a supervisory role even though the city attracts thousands of black visitors each year.

EFFECTS OF REPORT

The Herald's report sparked a media firestorm and forced the New York Police Department, which had long denied any monitoring of hip-hop stars, to admit that it had met with South Florida police to discuss rap violence.

The policing practices have also been decried by rap industry leaders and civil libertarians. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons' Hip-Hop Summit Action Network said it would file suit against both police departments.

''It appears to us there are certain federal violations that have been committed as a result of evidence reported by The Miami Herald as to the existence of rap profiling,'' Ben Chavis, CEO and president of the HSAN, told The Herald this week.

Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, outgoing president of the Miami-Dade chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said her organization would also be willing to file suit.

Said ACLU Executive Director Howard Simon: ``Just because some people in the rap industry have engaged in criminal behavior, that does not justify interrogating and profiling everyone in the industry. We wouldn't tolerate that with white musicians.''

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