Spyware Didn’t Find The Subway Shooter

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Friend,

Every New Yorker has fears about what can happen on the subway, but none of our nightmares matched the real-life horror inflicted in this week’s atrocious attack. In this moment of trauma, so many of us yearn for something, anything, that will let us feel safe. Sadly, we already see companies poised to profit from that desire, transforming tragedy into marketing for products that will fail New Yorkers in the future.

Following 9/11, our city invested billions of dollars on technology to prevent the next attack, and it failed. It wasn’t just a failure for the unproven predictive policing programs that track countless New Yorkers, it was proof that not even the Subway’s camera system would work. For those grounded in evidence, it was a moment to question the discredited surveillance safety narrative, focusing on solutions that might actually work.

Sadly, as I wrote in the Daily Beast, Mayor Adams quickly did the reverse, reassuring the public that, “We're going to be introducing some new technology that we believe could assist us.” What that technology was, or how it could have possibly prevented this sort of attack, he never said, but he promised it nonetheless.

If there were technology that would actually work, this would be a delicate debate. Sadly, investing in more discredited “weapons detection” software and faulty cameras will only transform train stations into TSA checkpoints, while failing once again to deliver on the tech’s promise. Moments like these, moments of fear, moments of grief, are the moments we make mistakes. It’s the time when human impulses drive us to inhumane ends. This is the moment to be most vigilant against false promises, magical thinking, and those who prey on tragedy for a quick buck.

In solidarity,
Albert Fox Cahn
Executive Director

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NewsletterWilliam OwenApril 15, 2022