S.T.O.P. Report Shows Police Databases Punish Black And Latinx Youth

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View this email in your browser For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Report Shows Police Databases Punish Black and Latinx Youth (New York, NY, 9/5/23) - Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, released Guilt by Association: How Police Databases Punish Black and Latinx Youth, a report detailing the unconstitutional surveillance of young people—the vast majority Black and Latinx young men—through law enforcement databases. Police departments across the country use so-called “gang databases” to track Black and Latinx youth based on ludicrous, non-criminal criteria like where they live, who their classmates and family members are, and what they wear. A data-based reincarnation of racist stop-and-frisk practices, gang databases crudely profile Black and Latinx youth, increasing their risk of wrongful arrest and deportation. The report calls for the elimination of these databases in their entirety. SEE: S.T.O.P. Report - Guilt by Association: How Police Databases Punish Black and Latinx Youth https://www.stopspying.org/guilt-by-association “For Black and Latinx youth, it is alarmingly easy to be added to a police database based on nonsense, non-criminal criteria, and difficult or impossible to be taken off,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Research Director Eleni Manis. “The result is bloated databases that produce no known public safety benefit—nothing at all to outweigh the grievous harm they do to young people who are added to databases without any evidence that they’ve done anything wrong at all. These police databases have got to go.” SEE: Gotham Gazette - Why We Should Abolish the NYPD's Gang Database, Not Reform It https://www.gothamgazette.com/130-opinion/11976-abolish-nypd-gang-database-reform Key Findings Include: Police increasingly replace stop-and-frisk practices with databases that crudely profile Black and Latinx youth based on their neighborhoods, peer groups, and clothing; These databases ruin lives: police typecast minority youths as gang members without evidence, putting them at risk of false arrest and wrongful deportation; Many police departments refuse to implement due process safeguards despite clear evidence that their databases are based on racial profiling, not evidence; Even the most rigorous safeguards would be insufficient to mitigate the full range of harms that these databases pose. They must be eliminated in their entirety. In April, S.T.O.P. welcomed the release of an Inspector General report detailing abuses of the NYPD’s so-called ‘gang database’ and renewed its call on the City Council to enact a full ban. The report found NYPD has unclear, unenforced procedures for including New Yorkers in the database, and that NYPD has violated its own procedures for entries. S.T.O.P. welcomed the report’s long-awaited release but condemned its statement that the OIG could not verify any evidence of harm from the gang database, given the well-documented racism of its enforcement. SEE: Press Release - S.T.O.P. Welcomes OIG Report On NYPD ‘Gang Database,’ Renews Call For Ban https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/4/18/stop-welcomes-oig-report-on-nypd-gang-database-renews-call-for-ban OIG Report - An Investigation into NYPD's Criminal Group Database https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/reports/pdf/2023/16CGDRpt.Release04.18.2023.pdf 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. --END-- CONTACT: S.T.O.P. Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. Copyright © 2021 Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.