Testimony of Barry Friedman to the NYC Council COMMITTEE on Public Safety

“Creating Comprehensive Reporting and Oversight of NYPD Surveillance Technologies Hearing,” December 18, 2019

Overview

Policing Project Faculty Director Barry Friedman testified before the New York City Council Committee on Public Safety regarding local law Int. No. 487-2018, previously known as the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technologies (POST) Act. Professor Friedman spoke to the need for comprehensive reporting and public oversight of policing technologies as essential to democratic accountability. Professor Friedman also noted legislation shortfalls in the proposed law.

Key TakeAways

1). The proposed law is a step in the right direction— it fosters the sort of transparency that is essential to democratic governance and calls for front-end accountability around policing technologies, a principle that is core to the Policing Project’s mission.

2). Though the law would require the NYPD to report adoption of certain information-gathering technologies and the policies that will govern their use, and to hold a public comment period, it does not require the NYPD to respond to those public concerns in any way or give reasons acknowledging why it has adopted one form of policy over another.

3). The proposed law does not address the concern of NYPD officials that revealing information about particular technologies will permit evasion by those who would endanger public safety and provides no provision for this eventuality.