New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau Explained

Agencyname:New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau
Flag:Flag of the New York City Police Department.svg
Flagcaption:Flag of the New York City Police Department
Motto:Fidelis ad Mortem
Mottotranslated:Faithful till Death
Preceding1:Municipal Police
Country:United States
Divtype:State
Divname:New York
Subdivtype:City
Subdivname:New York
Map:Map of New York Highlighting New York City.svg
Sizearea:468.9sqmi
Legaljuris:New York City
Headquarters:One Police Plaza
Minister1name:Edward Caban
Chief1name:John B. Hart
Chief1position:Assistant Chief of Intelligence
Parentagency:New York City Police Department
Officetype:Borough

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. There is limited oversight over the Intelligence Bureau, and it conducts work in secrecy without the city council being informed of operations.[1]

The intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus fall under the domain of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, which is commanded by Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Ulam Weiner.[2] [3]

Current subdivisions

Intelligence Operations and Analysis Section (IOAS)

The IOAS is responsible for both collecting and analyzing data for counter-terrorism purposes.[4] [5]

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.

International Liaison Program (ILP)

The International Liaison Program places NYPD intelligence officers in existing law enforcement agencies around the globe.[6] It was created in 2003 with the intention of counter-terrorism operations and has since found utility in investigating criminal cases that have international elements.[7] The program is externally funded by the New York City Police Foundation.[8] ILP has received criticism for its lack of government oversight, justification, and proper handling of intelligence. Currently, it has officers in 16 cities outside of New York.

Former subdivisions

Demographics / Zone Assessment Unit

See main article: Mosque crawlers. 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.[9] [10] [11] 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.

The unit's techniques included eavesdropping on conversations held in public locations, gaining access to internet usage by Muslim groups on college campuses by claiming to be investigating narcotics or gang activity,[12] and labeling entire mosques as terror groups in order to record sermons and spy on religious officials without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing.[13]

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".[14] [15] 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".[16]

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 critical of NYPD surveillance of their communities, and the Demographics Unit in particular. On April 15, 2014, the New York Times reported that the NYPD officially dismantled the Zone Assessment Unit. However, there is concern that the data gathered through the program is still being used.

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.

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 Caucasus region, which includes Chechens, both to ensure people in those neighborhoods were not victimized by retaliation and to ensure that the two perpetrators would not able to blend into the area. In another instance, the NYPD responded in the Hazara community after a Hazara leader was killed by a Pakistan-based organization in Quetta, Pakistan.[17]

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.[18]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Document shows NYPD eyed Shiites based on religion. Associated Press. en. 2019-06-21.
  2. News: N.Y.P.D.’s New Intelligence Chief Takes Reins of Secretive Unit . Cramer. Maria . 13 August 2023 . 13 August 2023 . New York Times.
  3. Web site: POLICE COMMISSIONER CABAN APPOINTS REBECCA WEINER AS NYPD DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM . www.nyc.gov. 2023-08-13.
  4. Web site: 2019 Police Commissioner Report. cloud.3dissue.com. 2019-06-21.
  5. Web site: Intelligence - NYPD. www1.nyc.gov. 2019-06-21.
  6. Web site: Intelligence - NYPD . 2022-11-06 . www.nyc.gov.
  7. News: Winston . Ali . 2018-08-21 . Stationed Overseas, but Solving Crimes in New York City . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-11-06 . 0362-4331.
  8. Web site: Counterterrorism . 2022-11-06 . New York City Police Foundation . en-US.
  9. News: A New York City Settlement on Surveillance of Muslims. Moynihan. Colin. 2016-01-08. 2019-06-20. en. 0028-792X.
  10. Web site: ACLU complaint against NYPD surveillance against muslim americans. ACLU. June 8, 2019.
  11. Web site: NYPD Spying and its Impact on Muslim Americans . https://web.archive.org/web/20190608204043/https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/liman/document/mapping-muslims.pdf . 2019-06-08 . June 8, 2019 . Yale Law.
  12. Web site: AP series about NYPD surveillance wins Pulitzer. Associated Press. 16 April 2012 . AP. en. June 9, 2019.
  13. Web site: NYPD secretly labels mosques as terror groups and spies on them. Associated Press. August 28, 2013. The Guardian. June 10, 2019.
  14. News: New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims. Apuzzo. Matt. 15 April 2014. The New York Times. Goldstein. Joseph.
  15. News: Miller . Anna Lekas . 23 April 2014 . The NYPD Has Disbanded Its Most Notorious Spy Unit, but Is the Age of Muslim Surveillance Really Over? . https://web.archive.org/web/20160527075250/http://www.thenation.com/article/nypd-has-disbanded-its-most-notorious-spy-unit-age-muslim-surveillance-really-over/ . 27 May 2016.
  16. Web site: Factsheet: The NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program. American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU. en.
  17. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/legal/defendants_brief_in_opposition_to_motion.pdf
  18. News: NYPD settles lawsuit after illegally spying on Muslims . Ed . Pilkington . The Guardian . April 5, 2018 .