WHO is spying on whom?
- Since at least 2002, the New York City Police Department鈥檚 Intelligence Division has engaged in the religious profiling and suspicionless surveillance of Muslims in New York City and beyond.
- The NYPD鈥檚 Intelligence Division has singled out Muslim religious and community leaders, mosques, student associations, organizations, businesses, and individuals for pervasive surveillance that is discriminatory and not conducted against institutions or individuals belonging to any other religious faith, or the public at large.
- The Intelligence Division units engaged in the NYPD鈥檚 Muslim surveillance program include its Demographics Unit, renamed the Zone Assessment Unit; the Intelligence Analysis Unit; the Cyber Intelligence Unit; and the Terrorist Interdiction Unit.
WHERE has the surveillance taken place?
- The NYPD鈥檚 suspicionless surveillance program has swept up Muslim communities throughout New York City, as well as every mosque within of New York, and to Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and more.
WHY is the NYPD spying on Muslim communities?
- The NYPD鈥檚 surveillance program is based on a false and unconstitutional premise: that Muslim religious belief and practices are a basis for law enforcement scrutiny.
- The purported rationale for this unconstitutional surveillance is captured in a 2007 NYPD Intelligence Division report titled 鈥淩adicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat.鈥 The report claims to identify a 鈥渞adicalization process鈥 by which individuals turn into terrorists 鈥 a 鈥減rocess鈥 so broad that it seems to treat with suspicion anyone who identifies as Muslim, harbors Islamic beliefs, or engages in Islamic religious practices. For example, its purported radicalization 鈥渋ndicators鈥 include First Amendment-protected activities including 鈥渨earing traditional Islamic clothing [and] growing a beard,鈥 abstaining from alcohol, and 鈥渂ecoming involved in social activism.鈥
HOW is the NYPD spying on Muslim communities?
The NYPD 鈥檚 Intelligence Division uses a variety of methods to spy on and monitor Muslim communities without any suspicion of wrongdoing. They include:
- Mapping of Muslim Communities: The NYPD鈥檚 Demographics Unit (now the Zone Assessment Unit) has mapped neighborhoods predominantly occupied by 28 so-called 鈥溾濃攊.e., national origin associated with Muslim populations鈥攁s well as 鈥淎merican Black Muslims.鈥 The NYPD expressly excluded from its surveillance and mapping activities non-Muslims such as Coptic Christian Egyptians or Iranian Jews.
- Photo and Video Surveillance: NYPD officers, stationed in cars outside of mosques, have taken of those leaving and entering places of worship, and recorded the numbers of worshippers attending services. Remotely controlled NYPD have also been placed on light poles, aimed at mosques.
- Police Informants: The NYPD has recruited so-called 鈥,鈥 to act as inside observers in mosques. They report on sermons, provide names of attendees, and take pictures inside of the mosques. Employing a method called 鈥,鈥 the NYPD has instructed informants to 鈥渃reate鈥 conversations about jihad or terrorism and 鈥渃apture鈥 and report the responses to the police. Informants are often selected from a pool of arrestees, prisoners, or suspects who are pressured into becoming informants.
- Police 鈥淩akers鈥: Teams of NYPD plainclothes officers鈥攃alled 鈥渞akers鈥濃攈ave been deployed to Muslim communities where they can blend in 鈥.鈥 They aim to compile information on the community, listen in on conversations at Muslim restaurants and businesses, and identify Muslim 鈥渉otspots.鈥
- Tracking Individuals: The NYPD tracks people who , investigating those who could be Muslim converts or who were 鈥淎mericanizing鈥 their names.
- Intelligence Databases: The Intelligence Division has generated daily reports on innocent Muslims鈥 lives. The names of thousands of innocent New Yorkers have been placed in secret police files. Information is kept both in an intelligence database and on a standalone computer used to generate intelligence reports.
WHAT are the consequences of the NYPD鈥檚 spying on Muslim communities?
- Stigma: Through its religious profiling and surveillance, the NYPD has imposed an unwarranted badge of suspicion and stigma on law-abiding Muslim New Yorkers.
- Interference with Religious Practice: The NYPD鈥檚 suspicionless surveillance has forced religious leaders to censor what they say to their congregants, for fear anything they say could be taken out of context by police officers or informants. Some religious leaders feel they must regularly record their sermons to defend themselves against potential NYPD mischaracterizations. Disruptions resulting from unlawful NYPD surveillance have also diverted time and resources away from religious education and counseling. Muslims feeling pressure to avoid appearing overtly religious, for example, by changing their dress or the length of their beards.
- Community Fear: The NYPD鈥檚 discriminatory surveillance has produced an atmosphere of within mosques and the Muslim community at large. At mosques, congregants often regard newcomers with anxiety, unsure if they are sent to spy by the NYPD. As a result, these houses of worship cannot serve as the places of spiritual refuge and comfort that they are intended to be.
- Chilling Free Speech: The NYPD鈥檚 discriminatory surveillance has chilled religious speech and political activism鈥攆rom engagement in public debates and protests, to friendly coffee-house banter.
- Damaging Law Enforcement Relationships: The NYPD鈥檚 unlawful profiling of Muslims has damaged its relationship with American Muslims, breaching communities鈥 trust in a police department that is tasked with protecting them.
