New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday the appointment of Muhammad U. Faridi as an independent civil representative in the glove committee of the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
This lawyer will be in charge of Supervise police investigations related to sensitive mattersincluding those related to political activity and terrorism, in addition to reporting any abuse of civil liberties to the NYPD commissioner and the federal judge assigned to each case.
“Muhammad Faridi is an experienced litigator who has served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar Association and on the Mayor’s Judiciary Advisory Committee. We are proud that it will continue to serve all New Yorkers. as a civil representative in the Handschu Committee”, announced the municipal president.
Faridi, will be the first American of Muslim origin to be appointed to this position and replaces former US District Judge Stephen Robinson of the Southern District of New York, who served as the first independent civil representative of the city.
Following the resolution of two federal lawsuits alleging improper investigations of the Muslim community in 2017, New York City created the Handschu Committee.
If the civil representative believes that an investigation does not meet the legal threshold required under the Handschu Guidelines, he or she is empowered to report any abuse the commissioner of the Uniformed Forces and the federal judge assigned to the case.
This autonomous civilian representative serves a five-year mandate. the nypd has nine members on the Handschu Committeeincluding the deputy intelligence commissioner, the intelligence chief, the executive director of the intelligence bureau.
“As advocates for more than one million Muslim New Yorkers, we salute the impacted communities being heard and welcome the decision to name Muhammad Faridi as the civilian representative of this committee,” said Ahmed Mohamed, legal director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York .
Faridi graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the City University of New York Law School.