NYPD Snoops: end of an error.

• Author: Shackford, Scott
• Position: Citings - Brief article

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) drew outrage and lawsuits when Muslim citizens in the city and nearby in New Jersey discovered they were under surveillance as part of an extensive but ultimately fruitless effort to determine whether any terrorists were plotting within the city's midst. Associated Press journalists won a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for exposing the police department snooping into the lives of citizens at schools, minority neighborhoods, and places of worship.

But new leadership at the NYPD finally brought about changes. New Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has shut down the special surveillance police force, known as the Demographics Unit, and reassigned the detectives.

Legal efforts to halt the surveillance had not gone so well. In February, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martini tossed out a...