The Frightening Effects of the NYPD's 'Mapping Muslims' Program

Between 2001 and 2011, in an expansive surveillance operation of Muslims in the New York region, the NYPD sent informants and undercover agents into cafes, mosques, restaurants, bookstores, clothing stores, salons and other businesses and institutions, assembling a collection of maps and guides whose level of mind-numbing detail — Are there newspapers available? Are antiques sold? Is the food Halal? — approaches that of a Lonely Planet guide to Islamic New York.

With the exception of widespread public outrage when the Associated Press exposed the program in a Pulitzer-winning investigation last year, the "human mapping program" of the NYPD Demographics Unit produced nothing: not one uncovered terrorism plot, not even a criminal lead.