Police surveillance in New York City

Sign which says Area is under NYPD Video Surveillance
NYPD surveillance disclosure sign on the Brooklyn Bridge, in lower Manhattan

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) actively monitors public activity in New York City, New York, United States.[1] Historically, surveillance has been used by the NYPD for a range of purposes, including against crime,[2] counter-terrorism,[3] and also for nefarious or controversial subjects such as monitoring political demonstrations, activities, and protests,[4][5][6] and even entire ethnic[7] and religious[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] groups.

Following the September 11 attacks, the NYPD developed a large and sophisticated array of surveillance technologies, generating large collections of data including billions of license plate readings and weeks of security footage from thousands of cameras. This data is now used in the department's day-to-day operations, from counter-terrorism investigations to resolving domestic violence complaints. The system consists of an interconnected web of CCTV cameras, license plate readers, physical sensors, machine learning software, data analytics dashboards, and mobile apps.[1]

Now centered around the Microsoft-built Domain Awareness System, the NYPD surveillance infrastructure has cost hundreds of millions of US dollars to produce and maintain. Many of its core components are being sold to or emulated by policing departments across the world.[1]

The NYPD has credited surveillance systems as preventing numerous terrorist attacks on the city[3] and helping to provide evidence for hundreds of criminal cases.[16]

Unlike intelligence agencies such as the CIA, the NYPD does not disclose the budget or funding sources for its surveillance system.[17] However, this may change in December 2020 when the POST Act goes into effect.[17]

  1. ^ a b c Levine, E. S.; Tisch, Jessica; Tasso, Anthony; Joy, Michael (February 2017). "The New York City Police Department's Domain Awareness System". Interfaces. 47 (1): 70–84. doi:10.1287/inte.2016.0860.
  2. ^ "Stop-and-Frisk Data". New York Civil Liberties Union. January 2, 2012. Retrieved June 16, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "NYPD sent video teams to record Occupy and BLM protests over 400 times, documents reveal". March 22, 2017.
  5. ^ Moynihan, Colin (March 12, 2012). "Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Surveillance". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Orden, Erica (October 13, 2011). "Camera Wars at Protest". Wall Street Journal.
  7. ^ "NYPD Eyed US Citizens in Intel Effort". Associated Press. September 22, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  8. ^ Yale. "NYPD Spying and its Impact on Muslim Americans" (PDF). Yale Law. Yale. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  9. ^ Diala Shamas; Nermeen Arastu (2013). Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and Its Impact on American Muslims (PDF). Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC), and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 28, 2019.
  10. ^ "ACLU complaint against NYPD surveillance against muslim americans" (PDF). ACLU. ACLU. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
  11. ^ Apuzzo, Matt; Goldstein, Joseph (April 15, 2014). "New York Drops Unit That Spied on Muslims". The New York Times.
  12. ^ "New Report Underscores Need to Rein in NYPD Surveillance of American Muslims". New York Civil Liberties Union. August 23, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  13. ^ Daly, Michael (April 16, 2014). "NYPD Will Keep Spying in the Muslim Community With Undercovers, Informants".
  14. ^ "Factsheet: The NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program". American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU.
  15. ^ Miller, Anna Lekas (April 23, 2014). "The NYPD Has Disbanded Its Most Notorious Spy Unit, but Is the Age of Muslim Surveillance Really Over?".
  16. ^ Doyle, John (March 8, 2010). "Cop cams key in 'hundreds' of cases: NYPD". New York Post. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  17. ^ a b Cahn, Albert Fox. "What's the real NYPD budget? Nobody knows". nydailynews.com. Retrieved June 19, 2020.