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NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT, IN RESPONSE TO A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) REQUEST, PROPERLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ON COUNTERTERRORISM GROUNDS (CT APP).

The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge DiFiore, over a partial dissenting opinion and a two-judge dissenting opinion, determined that the New York City Police Department, pursuant to a request for records of surveillance of Talib Abdur-Rashid, Samir Hahsmi, a mosque and a university student association, properly refused to confirm or deny such records existed:

The agency denied the requests, stating in each case that the information, “if possessed by the NYPD”, would be protected from disclosure under various statutory exemptions, including the law enforcement, public safety and personal privacy provisions. After the NYPD adhered to those decisions on administrative appeal, petitioners commenced separate CPLR article 78 proceedings challenging the determinations. Petitioners asserted that the NYPD was engaged in an ongoing domestic surveillance program in which, as alleged in press articles, it had targeted Muslim individuals, places of worship, businesses, schools, student groups and the like. It was in this context that petitioners attempted to ascertain whether they were subjects of surveillance or investigation, noting that they had supplied certifications of identity waiving their personal privacy interests and authorizing the NYPD to release responsive records to their attorneys. …

The NYPD’s response, although styled as a motion to dismiss the petition in each case, did not assert a procedural objection but defended the FOIL responses on the merits. The agency explained the basis for its denial of the FOIL requests and its refusal to disclose whether it possessed responsive documents in a 22-page affidavit of its Chief of Intelligence, Thomas Galati. Without offering any specific information relating to petitioners, Chief Galati described the NYPD’s ongoing and wide-ranging counterterrorism efforts, acknowledging that the agency was actively engaged in covert surveillance and other intelligence gathering in its effort to preempt acts of terrorism in New York City, which remains a prime target in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks. The Galati affidavit averred that disclosure of whether the NYPD possesses records responsive to the FOIL requests would necessarily reveal whether petitioners had been the subjects of its investigation, information which — particularly if aggregated — would provide unprecedented and invaluable information concerning NYPD counterterrorism strategies, operations, tactics and techniques to those planning future terrorist attacks. The Galati affidavit also averred that the NYPD intelligence strategies are monitored by individuals and organizations with the goal of developing counterintelligence measures, and the greatest vulnerability to the NYPD Intelligence Bureau is the release of even “seemingly innocuous information” which would inexorably reveal sources from which information is gathered by the NYPD. Matter of Abdur-Rashid v New York City Police Dept., 2018 NY Slip Op 02206, CtApp 3-29-18

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW (FOIL) (NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPERLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ON COUNTERTERRORISM GROUNDS (CT APP))/POLICE (FOIL, SURVEILLANCE, COUNTERTERRORISM,  (NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPERLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ON COUNTERTERRORISM GROUNDS (CT APP))/SURVEILLANCE (POLICE, COUNTERTERRORISM, FOIL, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPERLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ON COUNTERTERRORISM GROUNDS (CT APP))/COUNTERTERRORISM (SURVEILLANCE, POLICE, FOIL, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT PROPERLY REFUSED TO CONFIRM OR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF SURVEILLANCE RECORDS ON COUNTERTERRORISM GROUNDS (CT APP))

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