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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Criticism of Intro 798 and consequences of abolishing the database
0:24:33
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Michael Gerber strongly criticizes Intro 798, which would eliminate the criminal group database, and outlines potential negative consequences of such action.
- Argues that abolishing the database would remove an important public safety tool and hinder gang-related crime investigations
- Warns that without the database, gang identification would happen informally without checks, documentation, or oversight
- Predicts that abolishing the database would lead to less precise deployments, slower investigations, and higher risk of retaliatory violence
Michael Gerber
0:24:33
Intro July would not change the database.
0:24:36
It would eliminate it.
0:24:38
The inspector general for the police department would be required to notify persons named in the database and provide additional information regarding how persons may submit requests for records contained in the database.
0:24:49
A member of the NYPD who used the database would be subject to financial penalties and to civil litigation including for punitive damages.
0:24:59
We urge the council in the strongest possible terms not to pass Intro seven ninety eight as drafted and more broadly not to eliminate the database.
0:25:12
It would be a terrible mistake to take this important public safety tool away from the NYPD and tie the department's hands when it comes to investigating and preventing gang driven shootings and violence.
0:25:29
If the database is abolished, gang violence will not cease.
0:25:35
Officers will still need to figure out who is in a gang, but without the database, this will happen informally in a decentralized fashion by word-of-mouth.
0:25:45
There will be no checks, no documentation requirements, and no possibility for oversight or controls because we will be barred from tracking this information.
0:25:56
The result will be confusion, mistakes, and a much higher likelihood that individuals are incorrectly identified by officers as gang members.
0:26:08
In response to a gang related shooting, deployments will be less precise, investigations will be slower, and the risk of unchecked retaliatory violence will be higher.