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Introduction to gang database discussion and overrepresentation of black and brown youth

0:50:24

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70 sec

Council Member Tiffany Cabán initiates a discussion about the NYPD's gang database, focusing on the overrepresentation of black and brown youth. Babe Howell from the G.A.N.G.S Coalition responds, highlighting issues with the database's criteria for inclusion.

The discussion reveals that social connections heavily influence whether a youth is placed on the gang database.
Many people are documented based on 'known associates,' which can include family members, friends, or even casual acquaintances.
Less than one-third of those documented based on known associates had enough information to support their inclusion in the database.

Tiffany Cabán

0:50:24

I wanna ask a couple of questions about, the gang database.

0:50:28

So just to get in a little bit further detail, you talked about, obviously, the over representation particularly of black and and brown youth on the database.

0:50:39

Can you tell me whether, in your experience, research that social connections that are, like, heavily influenced by proximity, influence whether a a youth is placed on that list?

Babe Howell

0:50:57

Yes.

0:50:57

100%.

0:50:58

And in fact, the OIG OIG's report, showed that many, many people were documented based on known associates, which could be a cousin, a friend, someone that they, wish a happy birthday to on social media, but often just, you know, photos of Go

Tiffany Cabán

0:51:15

to school with, live on the same floor.

Babe Howell

0:51:17

Exactly.

0:51:19

And and there just one moment.

0:51:21

There they found that less than 1 third of those documented based on known associates had enough information to even support that.

0:51:31

So, you know, kind of a crazy

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Impact of social connections on gang database inclusion