The New York Supreme Court has ordered the New York Police Department to disclose records detailing how law enforcement used facial-recognition technology against Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters. Amnesty International reports.
Under the ruling, the police must disclose 2700 documents and emails spanning from March 1 to September 1, 2020, related to the procurement and use of surveillance systems.
Rights groups say it will enable a thorough examination of the procurement and deployment of facial-recognition technology by law enforcement across New York.
“It was wrong for the New York Police Department to monitor BLM protesters, and it was wrong to hide the evidence,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of S.T.O.P.
He said that concealing the records constitutes a breach of the Freedom of Information Law. Cahn hopes the police will promptly comply with the court order.
“These records could help us prevent future abuses,” says the rights advocate.
Earlier, Amnesty International and S.T.O.P. requested from the New York Police Department records under the Freedom of Information Law related to the use of facial-recognition tools and surveillance of activists.
The police rejected the request, arguing that the scope covers more than 30 million documents and that fulfilling it would “unduly burdensome.”
Rights groups petitioned the court to compel the police to disclose the records. Since the filing of the suit, the number of documents requested has been reduced to 2700.
In February, activists reported that New York had 25,000 surveillance cameras with facial-recognition capabilities.
In June 2021 Amnesty International counted more than 15,000 tracking devices in three boroughs of the metropolis.
In January, rights groups called for an end to using facial recognition in public spaces. Amnesty International contends that biometric identification of people via street-surveillance cameras constitutes a gross intrusion into citizens’ privacy.
That same year the organisation launched the global Ban the Scan campaign, through which it seeks to ban facial-recognition technologies worldwide.
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