Letter Re: Public Comment on the NYPD’s Draft Impact & Use Policies for the Criminal Group Database and Social Network Analysis Tools

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The New York City Police Department  

1 Police Plaza
New York, NY 10038
postact@nypd.org 

Re: Public Comment on the NYPD’s Draft Impact & Use Policies for the   Criminal Group Database and Social Network Analysis Tools 

To Whom It May Concern,  

On behalf of The Bronx Defenders (“BxD”), Center for Constitutional Rights (“CCR”),  The Legal Aid Society (“LAS”), and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”),  we submit this public comment on the NYPD’s draft Impact & Use Policies for its Criminal Group  Database (“Gang Database”) and Social Network Analysis Tools (“Social Media Surveillance  Tools”). The NYPD’s gang enforcement policies and practices result in imprecise policing, racial  profiling, and sweeping civil liberties violations that disproportionately harm communities of  color, including many NYCHA public housing residents.1 The NYPD’s Criminal Group Database  Impact & Use Policy (“Gang Database IUP”) and Social Network Analysis Tools IUP  (collectively, “IUPs”) do not mitigate or resolve any of these concerns. Moreover, under the Public  Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act (“POST Act”), the NYPD is required to assess each of  its surveillance technologies for any disparate impact on protected classes. 2 Despite significant,  publicly available evidence that both the NYPD’s Gang Database and Social Media Surveillance  Tools have a disparate impact on young people of color, the NYPD failed to provide any  meaningful demographic analysis required by the law. For reasons described below, the NYPD  must eliminate its Gang Database, end its policies and practices that rely on the Gang Database or  underlying criteria, and end digital surveillance policies and practices that disproportionately  impact youth of color.  

Read the full comment here