Police Commissioner Ray Kelly defended his police force Thursday as Council members grilled him for two hours on police tactics that some say amount to racial profiling.
Council members, at a Public Safety Committee meeting, asked about a recent Associated Press report detailing the NYPD’s use of CIA-trained undercover cops to monitor Muslim communities.
“It seems to me like that’s profiling,” Councilman Daniel Dromm told Kelly.
But Kelly said officers go only where tips lead them, though he did admit he couldn’t be sure that undercover cops had never stepped into a mosque without receiving a tip first.
“I don’t know every detail or every action,” he said. “The protection of civil liberties is as important to the police department as the protection of the city itself,” he added.
Kelly: Yes, we can shoot down planes
NEW YORK. Kelly also clarified his comments on “60 Minutes” last month, when he said the NYPD can take out an aircraft. He said the NYPD does not have the resources to bring down a large plane, but is able to intercept a crop duster spraying a chemical weapon. Only the mayor has the authority to order a takedown, he said.
