New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau

Last updated
New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau
Flag of the New York City Police Department.svg
Flag of the New York City Police Department
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 Highlighting New York City.svg
Map of New York City Police Department Intelligence Bureau's jurisdiction
Size468.9 square miles (1,214 km2)
Legal jurisdiction New York City
Operational structure
Headquarters One Police Plaza
Elected officer responsible
  • Keechant Sewell
Agency executive
  • John Hart [1] , Chief of Intelligence
Parent agency New York City Police Department
Boroughs
List
  • Manhattan North
  • Manhattan South
  • Brooklyn North
  • Brooklyn South
  • Queens North
  • Queens South
  • Bronx East
  • Bronx West
  • Staten Island
Website
www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/investigative/intelligence.page

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. [2] There is limited oversight over the Intelligence Bureau, and it conducts work in secrecy without the city council being informed of operations. [3]

Contents

The intelligence and counterterrorism bureaus fall under the domain of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, which is commanded by Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Ulam Weiner. [4] [5]

Current subdivisions

Intelligence Operations and Analysis Section (IOAS)

The IOAS is responsible for both collecting and analyzing data for counter-terrorism purposes. [6] [2]

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. [2]

International Liaison Program (ILP)

The International Liaison Program places NYPD intelligence officers in existing law enforcement agencies around the globe. [7] 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. [8] The program is externally funded by the New York City Police Foundation. [9] ILP has received criticism for its lack of government oversight, justification, and proper handling of intelligence. [8] [3] Currently, it has officers in 16 cities outside of New York. [9]

Former subdivisions

Demographics / 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. [10] [11] [12] 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. [10]

The unit's techniques included eavesdropping on conversations held in public locations, [10] gaining access to internet usage by Muslim groups on college campuses by claiming to be investigating narcotics or gang activity, [13] and labeling entire mosques as terror groups in order to record sermons and spy on religious officials without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing. [14]

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". [15] [16] [17] 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". [18]

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. [15] On April 15, 2014, the New York Times reported that the NYPD officially dismantled the Zone Assessment Unit. [16] However, there is concern that the data gathered through the program is still being used today. [17]

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. [15]

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. [19]

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. [20]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department</span> Municipal police force of New York City

The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, municipal police departments in the United States.

CompStat—or COMPSTAT, short for Computer Statistics—is a computerization and quantification program used by police departments. It was originally set up by the New York City Police Department in the 1990s. Variations of the program have since been used in police departments across the world. According to a 2022 podcast by Peter Moskos with John Yohe and Billy Gorta, the name CompStat was suggested by detective Richard Mahere for the computer file name of the original program to comply with 8.3 filename conventions, short for "Comparative Statistics" and "Computer Statistics.".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Kelly</span> American Commissioner

Raymond Walter Kelly is the longest-serving Commissioner in the history of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the first person to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures. According to its website, Kelly, a lifelong New Yorker, had spent 45 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994 and again from 2002 until 2013. Kelly was the first man to rise from Police Cadet to Police Commissioner, holding all of the department's ranks, except for Three-Star Bureau Chief, Chief of Department and Deputy Commissioner, having been promoted directly from Two-Star Chief to First Deputy Commissioner in 1990. After his handling of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, he was mentioned for the first time as a possible candidate for FBI Director. After Kelly turned down the position, Louis Freeh was appointed.

Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision equipment and both terrestrial and spaceborne antennas for use in the government, defense and commercial sectors. They specialized in surveillance solutions, microwave weaponry, and electronic warfare. In 2019, it merged with L3 Technologies to form L3Harris Technologies.

In the United States, Red Squads were police intelligence units that specialized in infiltrating, conducting counter-measures and gathering intelligence on political and social groups during the 20th century. Dating as far back as the Haymarket Riot in 1886, Red Squads became common in larger cities such as Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles during the First Red Scare of the 1920s. They were set up as specialized units of city police departments, as a weapon against labor unions, communists, anarchists, and other dissidents.

The Handschu agreement is a set of guidelines that regulate police behavior in New York City with regard to political activity.

The New York City Police Department's Medal for Valor is the department's third highest medal. It is conferred upon police officers for acts of outstanding personal bravery intelligently performed in the line of duty at imminent personal hazard to life under circumstances evincing a disregard for personal consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board</span>

The NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is the civilian oversight agency of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the United States. A board of the Government of New York City, the CCRB is tasked with investigating, mediating and prosecuting complaints of misconduct on the part of the NYPD. Its regulations are compiled in Title 38-A of the New York City Rules.

Barbara Ellen Handschu is an American political activist and lawyer, whose surname was memorialized on a set of federal guidelines "[ordering] restrictions on police surveillance ... signed by the city [of New York] in 1985", which became known as the Handschu decree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Manhattan Security Initiative</span>

The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI) is a New York City Police Department initiative overseen by the Counterterrorism Bureau to increase surveillance efforts in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It is housed in the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center (LMSCC) located at 55 Broadway. The LMSI covers a 1.7-mile area from Canal Street to Battery Park, including the New York Stock Exchange, World Financial Center, former World Trade Center site, and numerous financial institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organization of the New York City Police Department</span> Law enforcement command structure

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is structured into numerous bureaus and units. As a whole, the NYPD is headed by the Police Commissioner, a civilian administrator appointed by the Mayor, with the senior sworn uniformed officer of the service titled "Chief of Department". The Police Commissioner appoints the First Deputy Commissioner as the department's second-in-command and the Chief of Department as the department's highest ranking uniformed officer. The commissioner also appoints a number of deputy and assistant commissioners who do not have operational command and are solely for support and administrative function. The department is divided into twenty bureaus, six of which are enforcement bureaus. Each enforcement bureau is further subdivided into sections, divisions, and units, and into patrol boroughs, precincts, and detective squads. Each bureau is commanded by a bureau chief. There are also a number of specialized units that are not part of any of the bureaus and report to the Chief of the Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct</span> Overview of misconduct and corruption in the NYPD

Throughout the history of the New York City Police Department, numerous instances of corruption, misconduct, and other allegations of such, have occurred. Over 12,000 cases have resulted in lawsuit settlements totaling over $400 million during a five-year period ending in 2014. In 2019, taxpayers funded $68,688,423 as the cost of misconduct lawsuits, a 76 percent increase over the previous year, including about $10 million paid out to two exonerated individuals who had been falsely convicted and imprisoned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department Detective Bureau</span>

The Detective Bureau is one of 20 bureaus that constitute the New York City Police Department and is headed by the three-star Chief of Detectives. The Detective Squad was formed in 1857 with the Detective Bureau later formed in 1882.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain Awareness System</span>

The Domain Awareness System is the largest digital surveillance system in the world as part of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative in partnership between the New York Police Department and Microsoft to monitor New York City. It allows the NYPD to track surveillance targets and gain detailed information about them, and is overseen by the counterterrorism bureau.

Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, 568 U.S. 398 (2013), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that Amnesty International USA and others lacked standing to challenge 50 U.S.C. § 1881a of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as amended by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008.

The New York City Police Department is reported to have a number of military-grade X-ray vans that contain X-ray equipment for inspecting vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department Aviation Unit</span> Aerial police force in the United States

The New York City Police Department Aviation Unit is a division of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) focused on airborne law enforcement and public safety. Operating under command of the NYPD Special Operations Bureau, the unit frequently works alongside partner agencies like the NYPD Harbor Unit and United States Coast Guard (USCG) to service New York City and its surrounding waters. The unit is headquartered at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, and boasts emergency response times within 8–10 minutes to most parts of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police surveillance in New York City</span>

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) actively monitors public activity in New York City, New York, United States. Historically, surveillance has been used by the NYPD for a range of purposes, including against crime, counter-terrorism, and also for nefarious or controversial subjects such as monitoring political demonstrations, activities, and protests, and even entire ethnic and religious groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York City Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau</span> Division of the New York City Police Department

The New York City Police Department Counterterrorism Bureau (CT) is a division of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) responsible for preventing terrorist attacks within New York City. Former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly described the CT as "a Council on Foreign Relations with guns".

Mosque crawlers or rakers were informants dispatched by the New York Police Department after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to monitor Islamic people in the city. From 2001 until the program was exposed in 2011, The NYPD Intelligence Division used these informants to photograph license plates of congregants, track the ethnic makeup of worshippers, and collect other information. Rakers also monitored other places where Muslims congregated such as restaurants or student organizations, and in some cases attempted to bait people into making incriminating statements.

References

  1. ↑ "Intelligence - NYPD". www.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  2. 1 2 3 "Intelligence - NYPD". www1.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  3. 1 2 "Document shows NYPD eyed Shiites based on religion". Associated Press. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  4. ↑ Cramer, Maria (13 August 2023). "N.Y.P.D.'s New Intelligence Chief Takes Reins of Secretive Unit". New York Times. Retrieved 13 August 2023.
  5. ↑ "POLICE COMMISSIONER CABAN APPOINTS REBECCA WEINER AS NYPD DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF INTELLIGENCE AND COUNTERTERRORISM". www.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2023-08-13.
  6. ↑ "2019 Police Commissioner Report". cloud.3dissue.com. Retrieved 2019-06-21.
  7. ↑ "Intelligence - NYPD". www.nyc.gov. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  8. 1 2 Winston, Ali (2018-08-21). "Stationed Overseas, but Solving Crimes in New York City". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  9. 1 2 "Counterterrorism". New York City Police Foundation. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
  10. 1 2 3 Moynihan, Colin (2016-01-08). "A New York City Settlement on Surveillance of Muslims". ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  11. ↑ "ACLU complaint against NYPD surveillance against muslim americans" (PDF). ACLU. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  12. ↑ "NYPD Spying and its Impact on Muslim Americans" (PDF). Yale Law. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-06-08. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  13. ↑ "AP series about NYPD surveillance wins Pulitzer". Associated Press. AP. 16 April 2012. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  14. ↑ "NYPD secretly labels mosques as terror groups and spies on them". The Guardian. Associated Press. August 28, 2013. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  15. 1 2 3 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.
  16. 1 2 Apuzzo, Matt; Goldstein, Joseph (15 April 2014). "New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims". The New York Times.
  17. 1 2 Miller, Anna Lekas (23 April 2014). "The NYPD Has Disbanded Its Most Notorious Spy Unit, but Is the Age of Muslim Surveillance Really Over?". Archived from the original on 27 May 2016.
  18. ↑ "Factsheet: The NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program". American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU.
  19. ↑ https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/nypd/downloads/pdf/legal/defendants_brief_in_opposition_to_motion.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  20. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (April 5, 2018). "NYPD settles lawsuit after illegally spying on Muslims". The Guardian.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.