The News Says:
This report is just a hit job against the NYPD.
Granted access to supersecret NYPD files, Investigation Commissioner Mark Peters and his police inspector general issued a report that strove to conceal the most important information New Yorkers needed to know. To wit, that the police department has rigorously obeyed the Constitution and court-ordered guidelines for probes related to political activity. The cops have not illegally spied on anyone.
Since the disclosure that the NYPD had mapped the neighborhoods of immigrants from terror-producing countries, the department has faced — and rightly denied — accusations of illegal surveillance of Muslims.
Critics also charge that intelligence detectives and undercover informants have trampled the First Amendment rights of mosque worshippers or of political or anti-police protesters.
Under Peters’ watch, Inspector General Philip Eure accepted the mission of telling New York whether the NYPD’s highly confidential anti-terror unit had run roughshod over rights.
Typical for an operation whose every report has been biased against the NYPD, Eure expended 33 pages to showing that the cops could use better case-tracking software and devoted but a single paragraph to saying in jargon that the intelligence division has met all legal standards.
When probing political activity, the NYPD is governed by the Handschu Guidelines, which are named after the federal court case that gave them birth. The rules empower the department to conduct a six-month, renewable preliminary inquiry when there is a “possibility” of unlawful activity and a one-year, renewable investigation when evidence “reasonably” indicates “that an unlawful act has been, is being, or will be committed.”
The intelligence division is mandated to file paperwork explaining its plans, including the use of undercover officers, and to submit further documentation as time limits expire. Incredibly, Eure focused on deadline violations. For example, he found that the intelligence division missed the deadline for extending a preliminary probe 54% of the time — but the average lapse before detectives got a formal okay to continue investigating was all of 22 days.
Eure cited not a single example of an investigation that continued beyond a deadline without good grounds.
In fact, Eure discovered outstanding NYPD quality control. He related the process in passing:
Before beginning an investigation, detectives and intelligence division lawyers prepare an investigative statement for review by a so-called Handschu Committee, which is composed of numerous senior commanders and lawyers. The panel considers all investigative statements and discusses cases at monthly meetings.
Still more, bureau leaders critique investigations weekly and read detective reports in order to spot “potential violations of internal policies.”
In a press statement, Peters declared that the investigation “demonstrates a failure by the NYPD to follow rules” governing investigations of political activity. He is telling the truth only in the most petty and misleading sense. He and Eure have proven that they can cite facts and still lie.