For Immediate Release
Civil Rights Groups Hold Online Press Conference Ahead Of Biden, Adams Meeting, Oppose NYC Surveillance Expansion
(NEW YORK, NY, 2/3/2022) – Today, Amnesty International, Innocence Project, Legal Aid Society, National Lawyers Guild, NYCLU, the NYU Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, The Policing and Social Justice Project, and The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) held an online press conference ahead of President Biden’s meeting with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, opposing Adams’ proposed expansion of police surveillance. Participants called on both President Biden and Mayor Adams to stop use of biased, error-prone, and invasive technologies. The press conference came in response to Adams’ proposed expansion of facial recognition, gun detection cameras, and other unproven police technologies.
SEE: Press Conference Video Recording
https://web.tresorit.com/l/OftXT#Ogf4aDPfvsjPI9gsHV7Nlg
Politico - Biden to talk gun violence with Adams in visit to NYC
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/26/biden-gun-violence-eric-adams-new-york-00002460
“We need safety, not surveillance pseudoscience,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “The NYPD’s biased facial recognition dragnet already is targeting thousands of New Yorkers, and expanding the technology will only put more people at risk. And gun detection technology is completely unproven in the field. These biased and untested technologies are a blueprint for wrongful arrest and police violence. New Yorkers deserve better; the American people deserve better. Instead, President Biden and Mayor Adams should be focusing on evidence-based anti-violence measures, investing in the violence interruption and safety net programs that we know reduce violence.”
“My message to the Mayor and President Biden is clear: our safety cannot come at the expense of our civil liberties,” said New York City Council Member Shahana Hanif. “In the aftermath of 9/11, the Muslim community endured daily intimidation from the NYPD simply because of our faith. We were surveilled, racially profiled, and entrapped without cause, infringing not only on our civil rights but on our personal wellbeing. We know facial recognition software is deeply flawed and has a demonstrated bias against Black and brown people. The expansion of its use will only further the NYPD’s racist harassment of people of color. To achieve real public safety, we need billion-dollar investments in mental health services, summer youth employment, and community-driven anti-violence programs. Creating a surveillance state will not keep us safe— it will only keep our jails and prisons full.”
“Given the serious implications of the proposed technology on the constitutional rights of New Yorkers, and its outsized effects on historically marginalized communities of color, we believe that the federal government has a moral responsibility to stand in the gap on behalf of the most vulnerable among us and ensure that state and local officials do not overstep their bounds in the name of ‘public safety,” said NYU Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law Executive Director Jason Williamson.
“Under the guise of public safety, Mayor Adams is trying to justify expanding the NYPD’s use of invasive and unreliable technology,” said Legal Aid Society Digital Forensics Supervising Attorney Jerome Greco. “The NYPD has consistently shown that it cannot be trusted with tools like facial recognition and automated weapon detection. These tools are ineffective and will be used to harass people of color. The money the NYPD continues to spend on surveilling these communities would be better spent on providing resources to address their needs.”
“Blanket intelligence systems and surveillance technologies cannot be solutions to crime because they contribute to suspect development, the phenomena in which AI-enabled technologies transform innocent people into suspects,” said Innocence Project Executive Director Christina Swarns. “Once AI technology identifies a person as a potential suspect, tunnel vision often sets in and even clearly exculpatory evidence does not derail the investigator's certainty of the innocent person’s guilt. Because communities of color are oversurveilled with technologies whose algorithms reinforce racial biases and unfounded notions of criminality, we are alarmed (but not surprised) that all the wrongful arrests (that we know of) based on facial recognition technology have involved Black men. These flawed technologies are not a panacea for crime prevention nor do they ensure the fair and equitable administration of justice.”
“From the Civil Rights movement to the Black Panthers and COINTELPRO, history has proven that police cannot be trusted with surveillance technologies,” said National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee Co-Chair Erica Johnson.
“New York City does not need more federal resources to expand and supercharge the NYPD, or to ramp up law enforcement surveillance that will run roughshod over civil liberties and target communities of color,” said NYCLU Policy Director Lee Rowland. “We are deeply concerned with Mayor Adams's focus on expanding the city's use of biased and ineffective surveillance tools like facial recognition technology and ShotSpotter and his intent on increasing data sharing with federal law enforcement, which may include agencies like ICE and CBP. The mayor called for the "responsible use" of these technologies, but there's no way to responsibly use tools that disproportionately expose people of color to false arrests and dangerous police encounters. New York City needs to ban facial recognition, and install real accountability mechanisms, limitations, or meaningful policies in place to protect New Yorkers from surveillance."
Press Release - S.T.O.P. Condemns Adams’ Proposed Gun Detection Software
https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2022/1/24/stop-condemns-adams-proposed-gun-detection-software
NY Daily News - Adams must not drag us toward tech dystopia
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-adams-must-not-drag-us-toward-tech-dystopia-20220125-27ds6gddx5brdkl2pxlieyj5bq-story.html
The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project is a non-profit advocacy organization and legal services provider. 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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CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn
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