NYPD: Muslim Spying Led To No Leads, Terror Cases

In more than six years spying on Muslim neighborhoods, the New York Police Department's secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a terrorism investigation.

That's according to court testimony unsealed Monday. The Demographics Unit is at the heart of a police spying effort built with help from the CIA. The unit created databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed.

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As part of a longstanding federal civil rights case, Assistant Chief Thomas Galati offered the first official look at the unit. Galati testified as part of a lawsuit over police spying on students, civil rights groups and suspected Communist sympathizers during the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit resulted in federal guidelines prohibiting the NYPD from collecting information about political speech unless it's related to potential terrorism.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)