NYPD ordered to disclose contracts, costs for surveillance, facial recognition tech

New Yorkers whitethorn soon person a overmuch amended knowing of however the NYPD uses exertion to behaviour surveillance, way compartment phones and support its facial designation database.

An appeals tribunal ruling past Thursday ordered the Police Department to disclose each documents related to those technologies — and others — that were portion of the estimated $3 cardinal successful contracts the section entered into betwixt March 2007 and October 2020 and were shielded from nationalist presumption nether presumption of the Special Expenses, oregon SPEX, program.

The NYPD, which has described SPEX expenditures arsenic captious to nationalist safety, specifically efforts to combat terrorism, could inquire the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, to overturn the unanimous ruling that was conscionable issued Feb. 6 by the little court, the Appellate Division, First Department.

Jerome Greco, who heads Legal Aid’s Digital Forensics Unit, called the ruling a triumph for transparency that volition let New Yorkers to spot however their wealth is being spent “and what privateness measures were included successful these contracts.”

Jerome Greco

stopspying.org

Jerome Greco of the Legal Aid Society. (stopspying.org)

“We expect to larn however overmuch is being spent connected these antithetic technologies and services and the presumption of those contracts — however they’re expected to beryllium utilized and what information oregon privateness measures were included successful these contracts,” helium said.

Many of the technologies utilized by the NYPD are good known, with assorted details revealed successful caller years successful a assortment of ways, including successful reports by the metropolis Department of Investigation, during transgression trials and successful documents, though heavy redacted, from the City Comptroller’s Office.

“But we expect that determination whitethorn beryllium a batch that has been hidden and not antecedently revealed,” Greco said.

Detectives enactment with facial designation bundle astatine 1 Police Plaza successful Manhattan, New York, successful this record photo. (David Handschuh / New York Daily News)

The Legal Aid Society successful October 2020 filed a Freedom of Information Law petition for the SPEX accusation but the NYPD refused, calling the petition not conducive to a due hunt for the information.

Legal Aid past went to court, with a justice successful October 2023 ruling successful Legal Aid’s favor. The NYPD appealed, but successful the ruling past week the appeals sheet criticized the “vacuousness” of the FOIL denial, noting that the documents successful question were easy accessible. The ruling besides criticized the NYPD’s aboriginal argument, that a petition for the documents was burdensome.

An NYPD lawyer had testified that to conscionable Legal Aid’s request helium and 1 different NYPD worker with entree to the documents would person to reappraisal immoderate 165,000 pages. But the tribunal ruling said the lawyers could not adequately explicate wherefore it would “take years” to bash so.

The NYPD, the ruling said, astir present “provide a rolling accumulation each 4th and supply presumption updates connected its compliance.”

The SPEX programme was unopen down successful precocious 2020 aft the transition of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act.

The NYPD has been accused since past of not adhering to the POST Act guidelines regarding caller projected technologies, though constabulary person said the section is successful compliance.