Q&A
NYPD's use of surveillance technologies in protests and demonstrations
1:01:44
ยท
97 sec
Council Member Yusef Salaam questions the NYPD's use of surveillance technologies during protests and political demonstrations. Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber explains the department's approach, focusing on the use of drones for crowd management.
- NYPD is bound by the Handschu rules governing surveillance of political activities
- Drones are used to track large group movements for deployment purposes, not to zoom in on individuals
- The department emphasizes compliance with Handschu rules, avoiding violations during peaceful protests
- Drones are used for public safety and efficient officer deployment, not for surveillance of political activity
Yusef Salaam
1:01:44
Has the NYPD used any of these technologies to monitor protests, political demonstrations, or religious gatherings?
Michael Gerber
1:01:52
So as as as you know, we are we are banned we we are we are bound by the hand shoe rules, hand shoe court orders.
1:02:03
That is incredibly important.
1:02:04
We take those very, very seriously.
1:02:07
We use drones.
1:02:11
We're talking about a large large protest and the like.
1:02:15
We do use drones not to zoom in, but we use drones to be able to track, let's say, where where a group is moving.
1:02:23
It allows us, helps us with deployment.
1:02:26
Sometimes we'll have very large demonstrations or the like.
1:02:30
We actually don't know where the group's going to go.
1:02:35
That can present very significant challenges from a public safety perspective, just in terms of making sure that we have the appropriate officers in the right places.
1:02:46
So we will use drones to track the movement, say, of of of a group.
1:02:53
We are very clear on the rules on this.
1:02:56
In the absence of criminal activity or enforcement activity in response to criminal activity, those drones are not zooming in.
1:03:06
They are not allowed to do that.
1:03:08
Right?
1:03:08
If we were if we were zooming in on a peaceful political protest, that would be a violation of Henshu.
1:03:15
We don't do that.
1:03:16
So so we do use drones in that way.
1:03:18
We are very, careful to abide by by the Hanshu rules.