PEEPING TOM

NYPD Kept Files on Liberal Groups

Infiltrated meetings and profiled activists.

Officers from the New York City Police Department went undercover to gather information on liberal political groups and their members, The Associated Press reported Friday. Newspaper investigations in 2007 revealed that the NYPD used similar information-gathering methods before the 2004 Republican National Convention, and a lawsuit regarding those actions is currently pending. The NYPD’s monitoring of liberal organizations was carried out by the unsupervised Intelligence Division and ran counter to directives from the U.S. Homeland Security Department, which has asked police not to monitor individuals and groups that engage in legal forms of protest.