NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims backed by voters (VIDEO)

A new poll by Quinnipiac University released today showed that 58 percent of respondents in New York City approved of the New York Police Department's strategies for combating terrorism, including surveillance that specifically tracked Muslims in the city, according to The New York Times.

Of the respondents 29 percent disagreed with the NYPD's strategies. Republicans supported the measures more than Democrats and whites supported it more than blacks or Hispanics, said The Times.

The director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, Maurice Carroll, said, "New Yorkers overwhelmingly think their police are going a good job of protecting against terrorism, and they don't believe they're picking on Muslims," according to TIME.

Reuters said the poll of 964 voters showed that 63 percent approved of the way the NYPD was doing its job (31 percent disapproved), and an overwhelming 82 percent said the NYPD was effective in combating terrorism (14 said it was not).

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly won an approval rating of 64 percent to 25 percent.

More on GlobalPost: Mayor Michael Bloomberg defends NYPD monitoring of Muslims

The Associated Press has done a series of articles on how the NYPD monitored Muslim communities and mosques around the New York metropolitan area, as well as keeping tabs on Muslim student groups across the northeast of the United States.

The US Justice Department is currently considering whether to investigate the NYPD's surveillance program, said the AP. The AP noted that the NYPD's program targeted "ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil liberties rules if practiced by the federal government."

More on GlobalPost: Poll: Obama remains a Muslim in the eyes of Alabama, Mississippi Republicans

Here is a video with Carroll explaining the poll's results, courtesy of the AP: