NYPD Surveillance Practices Face Scrutiny from Rights Groups

Records obtained by Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) after a five-year lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) reveal concerning surveillance abuses against protesters and communities of color, including the frequent use of facial recognition technology.

Analysis of over 2,700 documents reveals that the NYPD used facial recognition technologies on several occasions, subjecting New Yorkers to invasive, flawed, and discriminatory surveillance. The technology was used to identify individuals based on reports from the public who deemed them suspicious due to language or attire.

The NYPD had spent more than $5 million on facial recognition technology between 2019 and 2020, and is spending at least $100,000 more annually. The department stopped tracking facial recognition accuracy in 2015 after finding the error rate was too high. Records also documented instances of NYPD officers conspiring with the US Marshals Service to illicitly contract a facial recognition firm to surveil a private Instagram account.

The documents detail numerous instances of problematic surveillance. In December 2019, facial recognition was used to target New Yorkers using slang to describe Times Square on social media. The NYPD also targeted critics, including arresting one person for “FTP” graffiti. Two individuals were wrongly targeted at a New Year’s Eve celebration for not dancing and speaking a Middle Eastern language.

The NYPD targeted a “controversial protestor on twitter” for political speech and deployed facial recognition to identify a Black Lives Matter protester for writing “cops should die” in a social media post. Additionally, the department used facial recognition to identify two singers based on content in their music video.

The disclosures demonstrate instances of discrimination and abuse, reinforcing a disregard for the safety of Black and Brown communities in New York City. The NYPD has avoided scrutiny and benefited from a lack of transparency while investing in and using facial recognition to curb people’s rights to privacy, equality, non-discrimination, and freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.

In September 2020, Amnesty International filed a freedom of information request for NYPD records on its surveillance of Black Lives Matter protests. The NYPD rejected the request, prompting a lawsuit by S.T.O.P. and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP. In 2022, the New York Supreme Court ordered the NYPD to disclose more than 2,700 records about BLM surveillance.

Amnesty International, S.T.O.P., and the ‘Ban the Scan’ coalition have previously revealed that New Yorkers in areas at greater risk of stop-and-frisk face greater facial recognition surveillance, with non-white residents in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens experiencing a higher concentration of NYPD cameras.

The organizations are calling on city council members to enact bans on facial recognition, including measures already sponsored by a majority of council members. They also call on the NYPD and New York City mayor to immediately end the use of the technology.