For Immediate Release
41 Civil Rights Groups Call on Speaker Johnson For Vote On POST Act.
[NEW YORK, NY, 05/11/2020] — Today a national coalition of 41 civil rights and community-based organizations sent a letter calling on New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson to call for a vote on the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. The groups noted that recent NYPD abuses made the surveillance oversight legislation more urgent than ever.
SEE: POST Act Sign-On Letter
https://www.stopspying.org/post-act-letter-may-2020
Post Act Explainer
https://www.stopspying.org/post-act
“The COVID-19 crisis only increases the need for NYPD oversight,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “For years, the NYPD expanded facial recognition and other invasive surveillance without any civilian review. Many of these disturbing tools are now being used to criminalize lack of social distance in the communities of color. The POST Act simply requires the NYPD to do what every single other city agency does: show the public how its spending its money. Without privacy safeguards, NYPD information will continue flow to federal agencies, undermining our promise to be a ‘sanctuary city.’”
“We are already seeing overpoliced communities bear the brunt of social distancing enforcement,” said Brennan Center for Justice, Liberty & National Security Program Counsel Ángel Díaz. “The POST Act’s transparency and accountability requirements are essential to prevent an era of digital stop-and-frisk.”
“Too often, the only meaningful checks on the NYPD's ability to target and surveil New Yorkers have come after incidents where harm has already been inflicted, often against communities of color,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Lead Policy Counsel Michael Sisitsky. “That is due to a lack of any meaningful oversight mechanisms that could identify or preempt such harms before they occur. Transparency and fully-informed conversations about police surveillance increase public trust, and right now that's essential to building public health infrastructure that will save lives.”
“Time and again, the NYPD has shown that the law is not enforced equally in NYC, and its approach to COVID-19 social distancing enforcement has proven to be no exception,” said National Action Network NYC Field Director Derek Perkinson. “To even begin addressing this injustice, we require immediate passage of the POST Act—to provide the bare minimum of transparency of NYPD operations.”
“The immediate need for the POST Act is underscored by the use of surveillance to enforce social distancing measures and the growing privacy concerns about possible COVID-19 related electronic contact tracing,” Legal Aid Society Digital Forensics Supervising Attorney Jerome D. Greco. “We urge the City Council to pass this long-pending legislation to help provide transparency and assurance that people's rights will be protected in this time of uncertainty and beyond.”
The POST Act was previously endorsed by the Progressive Caucus and Black, Latino/a, and Asian Caucus. Additionally, 32 City Council members and the New York City Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams, are co-sponsors of the bill. Speaker Johnson originally co-sponsored the POST Act in 2017, but the bill expired at the end of the City Council session, and he has largely remained silent on the bill since it was reintroduced in 2018.
SEE: Black, Latino/a and Asian Caucus Endorses 'POST Act' NYPD Surveillance Oversight Bill
https://www.stopspying.org/s/BLAC-Endorses-Post-Act-drpz.pdf
2017 POST Act Bill Text
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2972217&GUID=0D8289B8-5F08-4E6F-A0D1-2120EF7A0DCA
2018 POST Act Bill Text
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3343878&GUID=996ABB2A-9F4C-4A32-B081-D6F24AB954A0
The POST Act is part of a nation-wide effort to fight the growth of police surveillance technology. But unlike cities like Oakland and San Francisco, which require local legislators to approve each and every surveillance system their municipality buys, the POST Act only requires the NYPD to give the public notice about what systems it uses and how information is shared. Additionally, the NYPD would have to undergo an annual privacy audit by the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD.
SEE: Community Control Over Police Surveillance
https://www.aclu.org/issues/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/community-control-over-police-surveillance
San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider hosted by the Urban Justice Center. S.T.O.P. litigates and advocates for privacy, fighting excessive local and state-level surveillance. Our work highlights the discriminatory impact of surveillance on Muslim Americans, immigrants, and communities of color.
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