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i can see why in highly segregated communities it might be more effective to have detectives who know xyz about a certain community, especially since criminal gangs tend to self-associate by race/ethnicity

would a police group dedicated to investigating the mafia be a violation of the civil rights act?

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No, that would be ridiculous. An “Italian squad” might be, though.

any mafia squad back in the day was effectively an italian squad

The details matter when talking about legalities. A group of cops investigating a gang that happens to have a lot of italian members is different than having a group of cops that investigates italians.

And yet, it was never called that, right? It would have been a Mafia task force, a task force against a particular family, or a task force against organized crime. You wouldn’t call it an Italian task force because you’re probably hoping for help from the Italian-American community to help catch the Mafiosos, and that naming convention is pretty insulting to law abiding Italians-Americans.

i believe the nypd (before the civil rights era) historically had an italian squad named precisely that comprised mostly of italian-american officers investigating italians in NYC

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