Amid effort to improve Muslim relations, N.Y. appoints civilian monitor of NYPD

(The Christian Science Monitor) New York will appoint an independent monitor to review the police department’s counterterrorism investigations and strengthen protections against the illegal surveillance of Muslims as part of a settlement in two high-profile civil rights lawsuits, lawyers said on Thursday.

The announcement of the deal formally ends the two suits alleging that the NYPD, the nation’s largest police department, was illegally infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslims because of their religion.

It comes amid a larger campaign by the city to increase outreach to Muslim residents and provide government services to communities that have often felt neglected and under a cloud of suspicion in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernadino, California.