NYPD is Required to Disclose How Its Facial Recognition Procedures Used During the Black Lives Matter Protests

The New York Police Department (NYPD) must make public records relating to its investigation of Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, under a judge's ruling. A public records request concerning the use of face recognition and other forms of monitoring on protestors by the New York police must now be complied with.

Before we discuss the decision of the court, let us first have a brief background on the issue.

NYPD Allegedly Bought Surveillance Tools With No Public Oversight

The facial recognition software provider Clearview AI was allegedly an acknowledged vendor to the NYPD as early as 2018 and continued to have a cordial connection with officers on the force long after that, despite claims made by the NYPD in early 2020 that it had no affiliation with the company, as per the report of Buzzfeed last year.

Documents revealed as a result of a public records request made by Rachel Richards refute the NYPD's previous statement to the media that it "does not have any contract, agreement, or relationship with Clearview AI, formally or informally."

According to Buzzfeed, Clearview AI, which is infamous for illegally obtaining 3 billion photographs from websites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, has given out their software to tens of thousands of police officers around the nation.

Meanwhile, the NYPD also allegedly purchased a number of surveillance equipment, including "stingray" cell site simulators, predictive policing software, vans equipped with x-ray machines to detect firearms, and facial recognition software, according to a previous Wired report.

The records reveal that the NYPD has spent at least $159 million since 2007 using an obscure "Special Expenses Fund" that was not subject to review by the city council or other municipal officials. Two civil rights organizations, the Legal Aid Society and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP), which claim that the practice amounted to a "surveillance slush fund," made the records public.

New York Judge Said NYPD Is Required to Disclose How Its Facial Recognition Procedures Used During the Black Lives Matter Protests

Amnesty International and the STOP had previously asked the NYPD for records pertaining to its use of facial recognition and surveillance tools on activists, but the NYPD had previously refused their request. As a result, both organizations sued the law enforcement agency last year.

Engadget reported that the police department has argued that complying with the records request would be "unreasonably burdensome" because it would encompass more than 30 million documents.

Meanwhile, Justice Lawrence Love of the New York Supreme Court disagreed with the NYPD's argument in a ruling issued on Friday. The judge also ordered both Amnesty International and STOP to re-submit their FOIL request, this time tailoring it to cover the 2,700 documents in question.

Since the lawsuit was filed, legal teams for the NYPD and Amnesty International have met and reduced the number of documents to 2,700 in total, an amount that Love called "far more reasonable."