Police Databases Decide Guilt By Association

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

Friend, How much thought do you give to who follows you on social media? To your neighbor who said “hello” to you this morning, the clothes you wear, or the establishments you visit? These things may seem benign, but to the NYPD, and many other police departments across the country, they may be reason enough to add you to a list of supposed gang members, known as a police database. In S.T.O.P.’s latest report, Guilt By Association, we show how police databases use non-criminal criteria, such as neighborhoods, peer groups, and clothing, as a reason to surveil Black and Latinx youth. Stringing together information collected via social media monitoring, CCTV, geofencing, and other forms of surveillance, police databases are the digital “stop & frisk” - one that you won’t be able to feel immediately if you are in New York. That is because the NYPD does not notify people when they are added and there is no clear way for people to determine if they’ve been included. And when it comes to inclusion in these databases, the bar is low and the stakes are high. It turns would-be-misdemeanors for marijuana possession into felony charges. It allows judges to set excessive bail or refuse bail entirely and to hand down mandatory minimum sentences for supposed gang-related crimes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) use immigrants’ inclusion on these databases to conduct home raids and deny DACA applicants. This report provides verifiable evidence of harm coming from police databases and shows that no safeguard could sufficiently mitigate their threats. That is why S.T.O.P., alongside our partners at the G.A.N.G.S. Coalition, continues to rally against the NYPD’s so-called “gang database.” Last year, we helped introduce a bill in the City Council which would dissolve the database and prohibit the future use of surveillance practice predicated on association. It’s time for lawmakers to take action and abolish the gangs database. In solidarity, Nina Loshkajian Legal Fellow Share Tweet Forward Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.