NYPD inspector general finds investigators consistently failed to get proper authorization for surveillance, and that 95% of reviewed cases targeted Muslims

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The New York City police department has violated several regulations in its surveillance of predominantly Muslim communities as recently as 2015, a report released on Thursday found.

The 67-page report was completed by the NYPD’s inspector general, and examined the police department’s intelligence unit.

The report found that, when examining political groups, investigators consistently failed to get proper authorization or timely extensions for investigations or the use of informants and undercover cops.

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“This investigation demonstrates a failure by NYPD to follow rules governing the timing and authorizations of surveillance of political activity,” said Mark G Peters, commissioner of the department of investigations (DOI), a city-wide watchdog. NYPD’s inspector general office is a part of the DOI and was only created two years ago following a law passed in the city council.

NYPD’s guidelines for investigating are dictated by the Handschu agreement, established 32 years ago following a class-action lawsuit filed by several political organizations that accused the NYPD of unconstitutional surveillance.

“The Guidelines were designed to establish certain baseline controls on NYPD’s considerable investigative power,” the report explained.

The office of the inspector general examined investigations that were closed between 2011 and 2015, some of which started as early as 2004.

The number of reports the inspector general examined was redacted but in a footnote on the first page, the authors note that more than 95%of the individuals under investigation were Muslim and/or engaged in activity associated with Islam.

“I am deeply disturbed to learn that 95% of the sample investigative statements reviewed by the IG were Muslims or entities associated with Islam,” said Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York. “Is this a confirmation of a Muslim surveillance program?”

The findings troubled many activists in New York’s Muslim community due to the NYPD’s tumultuous history with Muslim American New Yorkers. In 2011, the department was revealed to have unconstitutionally infiltrated Muslim student groups, mosques, religious bookstores, hookah bars and other predominantly Muslim areas to spy on people.

The demographics unit, which was responsible for the program, was dismantled in 2014.

The original surveillance program sparked a series of lawsuits, one of which concluded earlier this year. In the settlement of the case of Raza v The City of New York – which is still subject to court approval – the NYPD agreed to several reforms including: requiring facts before an investigations is launched, limiting the use of informants and undercovers, and prohibiting investigations in which race, religion or ethnicity is a substantial motivating factor.

Naz Ahmad, a staff attorney for Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (Clear) Project, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, welcomed the inspector general’s findings.

“We welcome the inspector general’s report confirming what our clients have long known: that the NYPD’s surveillance of American Muslims operated without oversight and often in violation of the rules,” Ahmad said.

The use of informants and undercover police, known as human sources, came under scrutiny in the report. Of the requests for human sources reviewed, none contained any details about the anticipated role of that source. It also criticized the use of “boilerplate” language when providing reasons for extending the use of informants.

Preliminary inquiries, which allow the police to gather information even when no law has been been broken, were allowed to continue indefinitely, and 100% of the extensions reviewed by the office of the inspector general contained no reason for the extension.

The report found the NYPD’s intelligence unit would also routinely continue investigations even after legal authority had expired, which amounted to months of time over the course of investigations.

The NYPD did not have any qualms with the findings of the report.

“I am very pleased the inspector general’s audit has independently confirmed this to be true, and I thank the IG’s office for its work on this audit and report,” said outgoing police commissioner William J Bratton.

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Fahd Ahmed, the executive director of Desis Rising Up & Moving (Drum), said the report confirms their suspicions and evidence. Drum conducted a survey of the Muslim community between 2011 and 2015 and found that surveillance by the NYPD was ongoing.

“They might as well rename it the Muslim Investigations Department,” Ahmed said.