NYPD disbands contentious 'Muslim spy unit'

The New York Police Department has reportedly ended a decade old controversial secret surveillance program, which was started to identify potential terrorism threats.

According to the BBC, the Demographics Unit had dispatched plainclothes detectives to listen to conversations and build files on places frequented by Muslims.

The team was under constant criticism from civil rights group and had been slapped with two federal lawsuits in the past.

The office of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wrote in a statement that this reform is a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve, so that both cops and the citizens can help one another go after the real bad guys.

Meanwhile, the program is said to have propagated Muslim mistrust for law enforcement, the report added.