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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Talia Kamran, Staff Attorney at Brooklyn Defender Services Seizure and Surveillance Defense Project
4:04:38
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Talia Kamran, representing Brooklyn Defender Services, strongly urges the council to pass Intro 798 to abolish the NYPD's gang database. She argues that the database leads to profile-based policing, harsher legal outcomes for individuals, and fuels racially disproportionate mass incarceration.
- Kamran refutes DCLM Gerber's claims, stating that the gang database is indeed used as justification for stops and arrests, particularly targeting young boys of color.
- She highlights the discrepancy between NYPD's stated policies and actual practices, citing examples of youth being interrogated and having their phones seized during minor arrests.
- Kamran also contradicts DCLM Gerber's statement about parental access during juvenile interrogations, stating that parents are often denied access to their children during questioning.
Talia Kamran
4:04:38
Hi.
4:04:38
Good afternoon.
4:04:39
My name is Talia Kamran.
4:04:40
I'm a staff attorney with Brooklyn Defender Services Seizure and Surveillance Defense Project.
4:04:45
Unlike our colleagues and community members, BDS strongly urges the council to pass Intro seven ninety eight.
4:04:50
As public defenders, we know that oftentimes the NYPD uses the database to justify arrest based on the suspicion of gang affiliation, which undermines genuine evidence based evidence gathering police work and encourages profile based policing instead.
4:05:05
Inclusion inclusion also leads to harsher bail determinations, plea negotiations, and sentencing, fueling our city's scourge of racially disproportionate mass incarceration.
4:05:15
What's most at stake, though, is that the gang database is a driving force behind racially biased, unconstitutional stop and frisk.
4:05:21
Based on what we've seen in our office, DCLM Gerber's claim that the database is not the impetus for stops is absolutely incorrect.
4:05:29
Policy does not equal practice and reality, and oversight does not mean compliance.
4:05:34
We frequently see that young boys of color are stopped, questioned, and even arrested for minor petty crimes purely to seek information for the database.
4:05:42
We see youth arrested for violations like disorderly conduct, and they should simply be issued a desk appearance ticket, but instead, they're interrogated for hours about what gang they belong to and who they know.
4:05:51
NYPD then has a common practice of seizing their phones in these instances despite there being no connection between any investigation of such a low level offense and a cell phone.
4:06:01
And it's clear that these minor arrests simply serve as an opportunity to seize data about youth, their friends, and to add their contacts to the database.
4:06:10
I'd also like to speak to something else that DCLM Gerber mentioned in his q and a.
4:06:16
He said that the department's policy is to contact parents and allow them into the room when a child is undergoing interrogation.
4:06:24
But again, policy and reality are oceans apart for the NYPD.
4:06:29
We frequently see that parents are failing to access their kids in precincts questioning.
4:06:35
And often, they'll the police department will claim that they need to unlock a phone to call a parent, and then they'll take that that child's phone.
4:06:43
We we've seen children as young as as 11 years old get stopped and frisked based on the gang gang database.
4:06:50
And so we strongly urge the council to pass seven ninety eight, and we thank you for this hearing.