Q&A
NYPD's social media monitoring practices and safeguards for protected speech
1:18:11
ยท
102 sec
Council Member Yusef Salaam inquires about the NYPD's social media monitoring practices and the safeguards in place to protect free speech. Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber responds to these concerns.
- NYPD monitors publicly available social media as part of investigations
- Undercover operations are sometimes used in online spaces
- The department emphasizes compliance with Handschu guidelines to protect First Amendment activities
- A civilian representative oversees Handschu compliance, reporting to the court annually
- NYPD claims 100% compliance in recent annual reports regarding Handschu guidelines
- Social media posts can be relevant for the criminal group database, but rules have been tightened
Yusef Salaam
1:18:11
How does the NYPD monitor social media activity and what are the safeguards to ensure protected speech is not unfairly targeted or added to the NYPD's criminal group database, the gang database?
Michael Gerber
1:18:27
Well, I guess there are there are a few different parts to that question.
1:18:30
In terms of the social media work, you know, we obviously, we we look at publicly available social media.
1:18:37
That's what any investigation would do.
1:18:40
We obviously do sometimes use undercovers in the social, you know, in the sort of online space.
1:18:47
That definitely happens.
1:18:49
In terms of, you know, protected speech, again, we, you know, we take Hanshu incredibly seriously.
1:18:58
We have a civilian representative as part of the Hanshu Committee who provides outside civilian oversight, reports to the court every year.
1:19:06
One thing we're very proud of, extremely proud of, is that for for years now, we have had a % compliance in the annual report from the civilian representative to the court regarding Hanshu.
1:19:19
So I do I do think we have very, very robust, very significant checks in place to avoid the the concern that you're raising.
1:19:30
And then in terms of the criminal group database, there are obviously, there are times when when social media posts could be incredibly significant for for assessing whether someone should be entering the criminal group database.
1:19:42
We have tightened our rules on that significantly and narrowed that significantly.
1:19:47
But, yes, there there definitely are times when someone's social media posts are relevant to assessing whether or not someone's a member of a gang.