New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau

The New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau is a division of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) which claims responsibility for the detection and disruption of criminal and terrorist activity through the use of intelligence-led policing.[1] There is limited oversight over the Intelligence Bureau, and it conducts work in secrecy without the city council being informed of operations.[2]

New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau
MottoFidelis ad Mortem
Faithful till Death
Agency overview
Preceding agency
  • Municipal Police
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionNew York, New York, United States
Map of New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau's jurisdiction.
Size468.9 square miles (1,214 km2)
Legal jurisdictionNew York City
Operational structure
HeadquartersOne Police Plaza
Elected officer responsible
  • Dermot Shea
Agency executive
  • Thomas Galati, Chief of Intelligence
Parent agencyNew York City Police Department
Boroughs
Website
www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/investigative/intelligence.page

The intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus fall under the domain of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, which is commanded by Deputy Commissioner John Miller.[3]

Current subdivisions

Intelligence Operations and Analysis Section (IOAS)

The IOAS is responsible for both collecting and analyzing data for counter-terrorism purposes.[4][1]

Criminal Intelligence Section (CIS)

Similar to the IOAS, the CIS collects and analyzes data for counter-crime purposes. They also conduct the Field Intelligence Officer (FIO) program, where officers conduct intelligence work with narcotics, firearms, and other criminal investigations.[1]

Former subdivisions

Demographics Unit / Zone Assessment Unit

The Demographics Unit (later known as the Zone Assessment Unit) was a secret police intelligence division formed after the September 11 attacks to surveil Muslim-Americans.[5][6][7] Police Spokespersons did not publicly acknowledge the unit until after the Associated Press revealed the organization through a Pulitzer Prize award-winning series of articles.[5]

The unit's techniques included eavesdropping on conversations held in public locations,[5] gaining access to internet usage by Muslim groups on college campuses by claiming to be investigating narcotics or gang activity,[8] and labeling entire mosques as terror groups in order to record sermons and spy on religious officials without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing.[9]

Twenty-eight "ancestries of interest were monitored by the unit, ranging from Arab ethnicities like Palestinian and Syrian to heavily Muslim populations from former Soviet states such as Chechnya and Uzbekistan to Black American Muslims".[10][11][12] It was noted by the ACLU that the NYPD "expressly excluded from its surveillance and mapping activities non-Muslims such as Coptic Christian Egyptians or Iranian Jews".[13]

In 2013, the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), along with Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) and Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) published a report that was critical of NYPD surveillance of their communities, and the Demographics Unit in particular.[10] On April 15, 2014, the New York Times reported that the NYPD officially dismantled the Zone Assessment Unit (formerly known as the Demographics Unit).[11] However, there is concern that the data gathered through the program is still being used today.[12]

in August 2012, the Chief of the NYPD Intelligence Division, Lt. Paul Galati admitted during sworn testimony that in the six years of his tenure, the unit tasked with monitoring Muslim-American life that had not yielded a single criminal lead.[10]

According to the NYPD, there were two specific instances where information from the Zone Assessment Unit was used. In the wake of the 2013 Boston bombing, NYPD deployed to areas inhabited by individuals from the Caucus region, which includes Chechens, both to ensure people in those neighborhoods were not victimized by retaliation and to ensure that the two perpetrators were not able to blend into the area. In another instance, after a leader of the Hazara community was killed by a Pakistan-based organization in Quetta, Pakistan, NYPD was able to respond in the Hazara community. [14]

In 2018, the NYPD paid out a settlement to groups and persons that were surveilled and agreed to update their training and manuals and that it would not engage in surveillance predicated upon religion.[15]

Policies

See also

References
  1. "Intelligence - NYPD". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  2. "Document shows NYPD eyed Shiites based on religion". Associated Press. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  3. "Intelligence & Counterterrorism - NYPD". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  4. "2019 Police Commissioner Report". cloud.3dissue.com. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  5. Moynihan, Colin (2016-01-08). "A New York City Settlement on Surveillance of Muslims". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  6. "ACLU complaint against NYPD surveillance against muslim americans" (PDF). ACLU. ACLU. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  7. Yale. "NYPD Spying and its Impact on Muslim Americans" (PDF). Yale Law. Yale. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  8. "AP series about NYPD surveillance wins Pulitzer". Associated Press. AP. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  9. Press, Associated (August 28, 2013). "NYPD secretly labels mosques as terror groups and spies on them". The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  10. Diala Shamas; Nermeen Arastu (2013). Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims (PDF). Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-28.
  11. Apuzzo, Matt; Goldstein, Joseph (15 April 2014). "New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims". The New York Times.
  12. Miller, Anna Lekas (23 April 2014). "The NYPD Has Disbanded Its Most Notorious Spy Unit, but Is the Age of Muslim Surveillance Really Over?".
  13. "Factsheet: The NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program". American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU.
  14. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/legal/defendants_brief_in_opposition_to_motion.pdf
  15. Pilkington, Ed (April 5, 2018). "NYPD settles lawsuit after illegally spying on Muslims". The Guardian.
  16. "Does New York City Need Gun Control?".
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