People arrested for minor offenses like "blocking the sidewalk" were held in police custody for several hours and questioned by members of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Intelligence Division about political organizations they belonged to, the position they held in these groups, which demonstrations they had attended in the past, and where they went to school.

The form used in the questioning, called the "Criminal Intelligence Division/Demonstration Debriefing Form," also included a space for the demonstrator’s passport or "Alien Registration" number.

During questioning, the police refused to allow protesters to see legal counsel and threatened to extend the detention if the inmates did not cooperate.

On April 9, after the New York Civil Liberties Union obtained a copy of the interrogation form and lodged a complaint with the police commissioner, the city cops announced they would end the practice.

"After review the department has decided to eliminate the use of the Demonstration Debriefing Form," said Michael O’Looney, an NYPD spokesman. "Arrestees will no longer be asked questions pertaining to prior demonstration history, or school name. All information gathered since the form’s inception on February 15 has been destroyed."

Top police officials, however, defended the political interrogations. New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly, while denying he knew anything about the practice, called it "a good-faith effort to help us determine what resources are needed to police certain demonstrations in the future."

To aid in policing future protests, O’Looney said the police will continue to ask arrested protesters about the groups they are affiliated with, and keep the information in the form of a "tally," supposedly unconnected to any individual’s name.

"I don’t think there are constitutional issues here," Kelly said. "We believe it was a legitimate question with no compulsion to answer."

The police commissioner said he asked that the information be destroyed because it was not needed, and it raised some "questions and concerns." He assured the press that no further such questionnaires would be drafted without the approval of the NYPD’s recently appointed deputy commissioner of intelligence, David Cohen.

Cohen, a 35-year veteran of the CIA, was appointed to this post when it was created in January 2002. He rose to a position in the upper echelons of the spy agency before taking on the job of heading up the New York cops’ political spying operations.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home