New York City Police Department Secretly Spent $159 Million on Surveillance Technology
upstart writes:
NYPD secretly spent $159 million on surveillance tech:
The New York City Police Department has spent over $159 million on surveillance systems and maintenance since 2007 without public oversight, according to newly released documents. The Legal Aid Society (LAS) and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) obtained the documents from the NYPD, which include contracts with vendors. They show that the NYPD has spent millions on facial recognition, predictive policing tech and other surveillance systems.
The NYPD made the purchases through a Special Expenses Fund. It didn't need to gain the approval of the NYC Council or other city officials before signing the contracts, as Wired reports.
From Wired:
Last year, STOP and other privacy groups successfully pushed for the passage of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act, which required the NYPD to reveal information about the surveillance tools it uses. After the POST Act's passage, the current comptroller, Scott Stringer, ended the agreement, opening the door for the Legal Aid Society and STOP to obtain and publish the contracts.
"New Yorkers deserve transparency, accountability, and oversight for all taxpayer dollars," Stringer said in a statement. "By shedding light on how taxpayer dollars are spent, we can continue to make government more open and accessible and build public trust."
In a statement, a spokesperson for the NYPD said, "No police department or federal agency has gone to the level of depth and transparency on law enforcement tools used in the field that the NYPD did in its POST Act disclosures."
The Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act: A Resource Page
Related:
Victory! New York's City Council Passes the POST Act
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