World | USA
Police snooped on New Jersey Muslims
Plainclothes officers conducted surveillance operation back in 2007
- AP
- Published: 00:00 February 23, 2012
Newark, New Jersey: Americans living and working in New Jersey's largest city were subjected to surveillance as part of the New York Police Department's effort to build databases of where Muslims work, shop and pray.
The operation in Newark was so secretive even the city's mayor says he was kept in the dark.
For months in mid-2007, plainclothes officers from the NYPD's Demographics Units fanned out across Newark, taking pictures and eavesdropping on conversations inside businesses owned or frequented by Muslims.
The result was a 60-page report containing brief summaries of businesses and their clientele. Police also photographed and mapped 16 mosques, listing them as "Islamic Religious Institutions".
The report cited no evidence of terrorism or criminal behaviour. It was a guide to Newark's Muslims.
According to the report, the operation was carried out in collaboration with the Newark Police Department, which at the time was run by a former high-ranking NYPD official. But Newark's mayor, Cory Booker, said he never authorised the spying and was never told about it.
Police conducted similar operations outside their jurisdiction in New York's Suffolk and Nassau counties on suburban Long Island, according to records.
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