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PUBLIC TESTIMONY

Testimony by Anya Weinstock, Attorney at Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, on Digital Stop and Frisk

3:36:27

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3 min

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Anya Weinstock, an attorney with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, testified about how NYPD technologies are replicating the injustices of stop and frisk in digital form. She highlighted the racial bias and errors in various surveillance tools, particularly focusing on ShotSpotter, and called for legislative action to mitigate these abuses.

Weinstock described the NYPD's vast surveillance network, including databases, cameras, and monitoring tools, which can be accessed by officers and used as pretexts for unconstitutional stops.
She specifically criticized ShotSpotter as error-prone and a driver of discriminatory stops, citing its 90% inaccuracy rate and potential to lead to dangerous confrontations.
The testimony concluded with calls to abolish the gangs database and ShotSpotter, and to pass resolutions against technologies that lead to discriminatory and ineffective stops.

Anya Weinstock

3:36:27

Good afternoon, Chair Salam.

3:36:29

My name is Anya Weinstock.

3:36:30

Thank you for organizing this important hearing.

3:36:33

I'm an attorney with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

3:36:36

We're a New York based nonprofit that advocates and litigates against discriminatory surveillance.

3:36:42

We heard extensively today about how stop and frisk continues to harm New Yorkers.

3:36:47

I'm here to testify about how every day a growing number of NYPD technologies are replicating the exact same injustices in a digital form of stop and frisk.

3:37:00

The NYPD's vast surveillance network includes sprawling databases, nearly a 100000 cameras, social media monitoring software, predictive policing analytics, historic NYPD crime data, and countless other monitoring tools including the gangs database.

3:37:15

Even worse, this data is then pushed out to every officer's phone giving tens of thousands of officers the power to access this data and giving officers the pretext for, to unconstitutionally stop someone.

3:37:30

These systems are riddled with error and racial bias replicating the violence of stop and frisk.

3:37:38

One such technology technology is ShotSpotter which is a dangerous driver of discriminatory stops.

3:37:46

ShotSpotter is a notoriously error prone tool that claims to detect gunshots but it's actually incorrect 90% of the time.

3:37:54

And, when alerts go off when a ShotSpotter alerts go off, this gives a pretext for NYPD officers to enter a neighborhood to try to find the shot and to this leads to discriminatory stops.

3:38:07

So, in the worst case scenarios, a shot spotter alert can even lead to to lethal force being used and in Chicago there was a 13 year old, Adam Toledo, who was killed by police because of a false ShotSpotter alert.

3:38:25

In New York City, ShotSpotter has led to police stops and harassing, individuals who are legally, legally on the street and not doing anything wrong.

3:38:36

ShotSpotter is just one example of the countless flawed technologies including automated license place readers, including the gangs database which we heard about that are error prone, racially biased, and concentrated in communities of color that lead to discriminatory stops.

3:38:53

In our written testimony, we highlight some of the, bills that you can that we urge you to to support to, to mitigate the abuses of these technologies.

3:39:07

And so we are calling to abolish the gangs database, to abolish the use of ShotSpotter to grow to for New York City to join the growing number of cities that has canceled contracts with ShotSpotter and to pass resolutions against technologies that lead to discriminatory and ineffective and harmful stops.

3:39:28

Thank you so much.

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Testimony by Karina Tefft, Attorney, Cop Accountability Project at Legal Aid Society on NYPD's Stop and Frisk Practices

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Testimony by Jacqueline Gosdigian, Supervising Policy Counsel at Brooklyn Defender Services, on NYPD's Use of Stop and Frisk and Other Investigative Encounters