Following the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City the New York Police Department started a secret operation with the intention of surveilling Muslims.
This covert operation was headed by David Cohen, a previously high-ranking CIA official, who ran the intelligence division for the department. Undercover officers were sent to gather information by eavesdropping or cataloguing mosque attendance by going to the places in the city where Muslims gathered. The operation was kept under-wraps with the NYPD neither confirming nor denying its existence.
The Department disbanded the secret operation in2013 after the election of mayor Bill de Blasio who reportedly disapproved of the surveillance of Muslims. The City of New York has also settled two federal law suits in relation to the NYPD’s operation. The first law suit, which was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union stated that the decades of surveillance of the Muslim community was a direct violation of the United States’ Constitution. The second law suit maintained that the department violated a set of rules which dictate how the NYPD can investigate religious and political activity.
A settlement has been reached which seeks to end the racially and religiously motivated surveillance of Muslims by the NYPD by requiring them to first obtain factual information concerning unlawful activity and limiting their use of covert operations.
The Police Commissioner released a statement, describing the settlement as “the latest step in the continuing efforts to build and maintain trust within the city’s Muslim community and with all New Yorkers.”
Information Courtesy of The New Yorker