New York City Police Department Surveillance Technology By Ángel Díaz PUBLISHED OCTOBER 7, 2019 n every age, police forces gain access to new tools Because the police insist on complete secrecy, however, and technologies that may advance their mission the picture is far from complete. The NYPD should not be Ito prevent and combat crime. The deployment of allowed to prevent the public and its elected representa- new technologies requires an understanding of their tives from learning basic information necessary on these impacts on the fundamental rights of the commu- technologies, which is critical to effective oversight and nities that police serve and the development of the establishment of safeguards to protect the privacy safeguards to prevent abuse. The New York Police and civil liberties of New Yorkers. The POST Act, intro- Department (NYPD), however, has purchased and duced by Council Member Vanessa Gibson and currently used new surveillance technologies while attempt- supported by 28 co-sponsors, would require NYPD to ing to keep the public and the City Council in the dark. take these steps. This chart provides an overview of the NYPD’s surveil- lance technology, based on publicly available information, as well as the potential impact of the use of these tools. 1 Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law Facial Recognition How It Works Impact NYPD Policy & Scope of Use Further Reading Facial recognition Facial recognition raises Chief of Detectives Memo #3 (2012). Garbage In, Garbage Out systems attempt the following concerns: – Face Recognition on to identify or verify NYPD’s Facial Identification Section (FIS) runs Flawed Data (Georgetown the identity of Race, Gender, and Age static photos obtained from various sources, Law Center on Privacy & individuals based Bias. Numerous studies including databases of arrest photos, juvenile Technology) on their face. have found that facial arrest photos of children as young as 11, and Different systems recognition performs photos connected to pistol permits, among The NYPD uses altered analyze face poorly when analyzing others.6 The system analyzes a photo against images in its facial characteristics the faces of women, those databases and generates potential recognition system, new in photos or children, and people matches.7 The system will return a list of 200+ documents show (The video feeds, or with darker skin tones. 1 potential matches from which an FIS investi- Verge) through real-time This places communities gator selects one.8 surveillance. already subject to over- Review on the effects of policing at greater risk of Where the footage is blurry or otherwise unus- age, gender, and race de- misidentification. able, the NYPD can use photo editing tools to mographics on automatic replace facial features in a reference photo so face recognition (The Privacy. Facial recog- it more closely resembles those in mugshots.9 Visual Computer, Volume nition is recognized as The NYPD has also run photos of celebrities 34) extraordinarily intrusive, through its facial recognition system to try to challenging reasonable identify suspects that resemble the celebrity She Was Arrested at 14. expectations of privacy where the original photo returned no match- Then Her Photo Went and lacking necessary es.10 The effectiveness of these techniques is to a Facial Recognition oversight. This is why a doubtful. Database (The New York number of groups have Times) called for a moratorium on facial recognition. Gender Shades: In- tersectional Accuracy Free Speech. Law Disparities in Commercial enforcement use of facial Gender Classification recognition can chill the (Proceedings of Machine exercise of First Amend- Learning Research, Vol- ment rights by exposing ume 81) protesters to persistent surveillance and identifi- NYPD ripped for abusing cation. facial-recognition tool (NY Daily News) Regulation. There have been widespread calls for Coalition Letter Calling for its regulation2, and some a Federal Moratorium on cities — such as San Face Recognition (ACLU) Francisco3; Oakland4, CA; and Somerville, MA5 — Face it: Recognition tech- have even banned its use. nology isn’t close to ready for prime-time (NY Daily News) Face it: This is risky tech. We need to put strong controls on face-recogni- tion technology (NY Daily News) Facial Recognition Is Accurate, if You’re a White Guy (The New York Times) Interactive Facial Recogn- tion Map (Fight for the Future) 2 Brennan Center for Justice NYPD Surveillance Technology Video Analytics How It Works Impact NYPD Policy & Scope of Use Further Reading These systems an- Video analytics raise the No standalone NYPD policy is available, IBM Intelligent Video alyze surveillance following concerns: though video analytics may fall under the Analytics (IBM Vendor camera footage Public Security Privacy Guidelines that gov- Material) and attempt to False Positives. Informa- ern the NYPD’s Domain Awareness System. isolate people and tion from video analytics These guidelines make no mention of video IBM Presentation Regard- objects within can be incorrect and analytics, however, and they do not include ing NYPD Video Analytics the video feed. lead to unnecessary and standards governing the use or storage of Development (IBM) Video analytics use potentially dangerous analytics information. algorithms to spot police encounters. IBM Used NYPD Surveil- particular articles IBM developed object identification technolo- lance Footage to Develop of clothing and Free Speech. Video gy through a partnership with the police that Technology That Lets Po- luggage. Certain analytics, like facial gave the company access to the department’s lice Search by Skin Color versions claim they recognition, can chill First camera footage.11 The NYPD then acquired (The Intercept) can find people Amendment activity by IBM’s object identification system to incor- in surveillance exposing individuals to porate it into the NYPD’s Domain Awareness The Dawn of Robot Sur- footage that match persistent surveillance as System.12 veillance: AI, Video Analyt- a particular hair they move about the city. ics, and Privacy (ACLU) color, facial hair, As of April 23, 2019, IBM stopped marketing and even skin tone. Racial Bias. Without certain versions of its Video Analytics program adequate controls, to additional cities.13 It is not clear what this targeting individuals means for IBM’s existing customers. based on their perceived ethnicity has the ability According to the NYPD, the analytics system to exasperbate racial is intended to automatically alert NYPD offi- disparities in policing. cials to activities, such as “suspicious package was left” or “loitering.”14 Privacy. Video analytics allow for persistent sur- A version of IBM’s Intelligent Video Analytics veillance as individuals 2.0, which allows users to search based on move throughout the city, ethnicity tags, was allegedly tested but never challenging traditional incorporated into the NYPD’s broader surveil- expectations of privacy. lance infrastructure.15 3 Brennan Center for Justice NYPD Surveillance Technology Social Media Monitoring How It Works Impact NYPD Policy & Scope of Use Further Reading Social media Social media monitor- NYPD Detective Guide (2013) and Opera- Government Monitoring monitoring can be ing raises the following tions Order 34: Use Of Social Networks for of Social Media: Legal and divided loosely into concerns: Investigative Purposes – General Procedure, Policy Challenges (Bren- three categories: New York Police Department (2012). Policies nan Center) False Positives. What permit officers to monitor social media for (1) Monitoring or people say and do on information and investigative leads. NYPD monitoring of Black tracking an individ- social media are difficult Lives Matter protest ual, a group, or an to interpret, and connec- Handschu Guidelines (2017). These guide- movements via social affiliation (e.g., an tions on social media can lines are the result of a settlement arising out media (The Appeal) online hashtag) via be given undue impor- of the NYPD’s unconstitutional surveillance publicly available tance or misunderstood of protesters and religious minorities. The NYPD Social Media information; completely. Handschu Guidelines allow officers to carry Monitoring Policy Allows out general topical research, but they prohibit For Use Of Aliases, Has (2) Using an Privacy. Social media them from searching for individuals’ names.16 Exceptions For Terrorist informant, a friend monitoring is intrusive, Activity (Tech Dirt) of the target, or challenging individuals’ However, to develop intelligence information an undercover reasonable expectations or to detect or prevent terrorism or other un- Stop and Frisk Online: account to obtain of privacy in online com- lawful activities, the NYPD is also permitted to Theorizing Everyday information from a munications. conduct online searches in the same manner Racism in Digital Polic- protected or private as any member of the public, which would ing in the Use of Social account; or Racial Bias. In the permit the police to access popular social Media for Identification of context of gang inves- media platforms.17 Criminal Conduct and As- (3) Using soft- tigations, communities sociations (Social Media + ware to monitor of color (especially chil- Various NYPD units engage in social media Society, Volume 3) individuals, groups, dren) are more likely to monitoring, including the Intelligence, Juvenile associations, or have their online activity Justice, Counterterrorism,