PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ivey Dyson, Counsel on the Liberty and National Security Program at Brennan Center for Justice
3:28:11
ยท
3 min
Ivey Dyson from the Brennan Center for Justice testified on the NYPD's implementation of the POST Act, highlighting concerns about the department's compliance and suggesting improvements to strengthen oversight of surveillance technologies. She emphasized the need for more detailed disclosures, better tracking of data sharing, and addressing potential discriminatory impacts of surveillance tools.
- Advocated for changes to the POST Act, including requiring the NYPD to maintain an internal tracking system for surveillance data sharing with external agencies
- Suggested that the NYPD should provide more information on potential safety hazards of technologies, citing the example of Digidog
- Emphasized the importance of disclosing information about the disparate impacts of surveillance technologies, particularly in light of historical discriminatory practices and issues with facial recognition technology
Ivey Dyson
3:28:11
I can start.
3:28:13
Good afternoon chair Brewer, chair Salam, thank you both and chair Gutierrez for holding this hearing and for your patience and public service.
3:28:22
I'm Ivy Dyson, I'm counsel on the Liberty and National Security Program, the Brennan Center for Justice and as part of our focus on government oversight and accountability, we advocated for the passage of the post act in 2020.
3:28:34
As you all know, unfortunately the NYPD has consistently evaded the act's disclosure requirements while continuing to expand its arsenal of surveillance technology.
3:28:44
Members of the city council have introduced bills that aim to strengthen the post act.
3:28:48
There are additional common sense changes the council should make to ensure better checks on NYPD surveillance.
3:28:54
As David Siffert from STOP mentioned earlier, there are changes that can be made to the post act in addition to the ones in the bills now that would incorporate other recommendations that the IG made in its first post act report.
3:29:09
These changes have been negotiated with the NYPD and are agreed upon by a coalition of civil society members interested in advocating around police surveillance issues.
3:29:23
So first, as you know, the NYPD uses generic language disclosures to explain how it shares surveillance data with outside actors like federal immigration authorities, city housing authorities and as put forth by the IG and their post act report, the police should be required to maintain an internal tracking system recording circumstances in which the department provides an external agency with surveillance data.
3:29:47
Additionally, the NYPD should be required to document how external agencies access its surveillance data and whether there are restrictions on how the data is used, how long the data can be kept, whether it can be copied and if any other entities can access surveillance data the police have transferred to external agencies.
3:30:06
Additionally, city council should require the NYPD to provide meaningful information on the potential safety hazards of its technologies.
3:30:14
In one of its post act audits, the NYPD IG found that Digidog's safety documentation from the company itself showed that the technology could cause injury including injury and potentially death, which was not included in the NYPD's own IUP on that technology.
3:30:37
Additionally, we are grateful that Intro four eighty asks the police to disclose information about the disparate impacts of its surveillance technologies.
3:30:46
As you know, the police have a history of discriminatory surveillance and as others mentioned earlier, the department continues to use facial recognition technology that has led to wrongful arrests of black Americans across the country based on racialized errors.
3:31:00
The public needs to know what steps the NYPD is taking to address disparate impacts and whether there are any variations in the accuracy of its technologies based on a characteristic protected by New York City human rights laws such as race or religion.
3:31:15
Thank you so much, we appreciate your time.
Yusef Salaam
3:31:17
Thank you.