By now you may have heard a bit about NYPD's controversial Demographics Unit. The AP recently won the Pulitzer Prize for their work on documenting the extent the surveillance.

The NYPD recently closed down its Demographics Unit, which used plainclothes detectives to spy on Muslim neighborhoods, including mosques, businesses and individuals, for about 10 years. It had been little used since NYPD Commissioner William Bratton took over in January.

The Demographics Unit's ethically were questioned in court on June of 2013 for "violating religious freedoms of Muslims under police surveillance."

Presiding judge William Martini ruled on February 2nd that no group was singled out and discriminated.

"The motive for the program was not solely to discriminate against Muslims, but to find Muslim terrorists hiding among the ordinary law-abiding Muslims."
WILLIAM MARTINI, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT JUDGE IN NEWARK, NJ

Here's an episode of This American Life the goes deeper into the subject

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