S.T.O.P. Welcomes OIG Report On NYPD Violations of Surveillance Transparency Law

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For Immediate Release S.T.O.P. Welcomes OIG Report On NYPD Violations of Surveillance Transparency Law The Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD detailed the department’s failure to comply with the landmark POST Act. (New York, NY 5/30/24) – Today, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy group, welcomes a report from the Office of the Inspector General for the NYPD, detailing the NYPD’s failure to fully comply with the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. Enacted in 2020, the POST Act is the first New York City surveillance law since 9/11, and it required the Department to detail every technology it uses and how NYPD data is shared. The report urged the NYPD to give both the OIG and the public greater information about how New Yorkers are surveilled. SEE: Report - An Assessment of NYPD's Compliance with the POST Act https://www.nyc.gov/assets/doi/reports/pdf/2024/25PostActRelease_Rpt_05_30_2024.pdf “Year after year, the NYPD continues to break the law, ignoring the POST Act and hiding details about what surveillance tech it buys and how it uses it,” said Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Executive Director Albert Fox Cahn. “Once again, the OIG is clear that the NYPD is hiding crucial data with boilerplate policies that hide more details than they reveal. You can call robots like Digidog a lot of things, but you can’t call it just another camera. But the OIG criticizes the NYPD for doing just that. The POST Act was a win when it was passed, unearthing billions in once-hidden NYPD contracts, but much more is needed to comply going forward. When Mayor Adams lets the NYPD break the POST Act and ignore these fundamental transparency requirements, it not only hides crucial data from the public, it undermines civilian oversight and rule of law.” Key Findings Include: The NYPD’s narrow interpretation of the POST Act undermines the law; NYPD used boilerplate language for its POST Act reports, hiding details of specific technologies; The NYPD largely failed to address the bias of its surveillance tools; The NYPD used blanket reports for multiple tools, once again detailed data for each technology; NYPD failed to specify the specific safeguards / data sharing arrangements for each technology. In December, S.T.O.P. joined elected officials and fellow civil rights groups in rallying against the NYPD’s repeated violations of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. The rally took place ahead of a hearing held by the New York City Council’s Committees on Technology and Public Safety to discuss the POST Act, where advocates highlighted the department’s systematic violation of the landmark surveillance oversight law in the three years since its passage. SEE: Press Release - Electeds, Advocates Rally Against NYPD Surveillance Violations Before City Council Hearing https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2023/12/15/electeds-advocates-rally-against-nypd-surveillance-violations-before-city-council-hearing In 2021, the civil rights group issued its own report on the NYPD’s POST Act failures, highlighting many of the same problems found by the OIG. The report found that other police departments routinely comply with surveillance laws that are far more stringent than what is imposed by the POST Act. SEE: Report - Above The Law? https://www.stopspying.org/above-the-law 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.