Last month, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a landmark policy putting in place long-overdue requirements on how federal agencies can – and cannot – use artificial intelligence.
Here are our main takeaways on what it means for law enforcement.
The Policing Project at NYU School of Law, the global law firm Jones Day, the law firm Lawrence & Bundy, and Canfield Law LLC have filed an appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit against Clayton County police. A range of groups and individuals, including law enforcement officials; Tyler Perry, Jamie Foxx, and other prominent Black actors; empirical scholars; Cato Institute; NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Institute for Justice; ACLU of Georgia, have filed amicus briefs in support of the appeal.
This week, we’re highlighting testimony we provided to the New York City Council on how the NYPD has skirted democratic accountability in deploying intrusive policing technologies.
During this year’s legislative session, we provided input and drafting support on 36 pieces of legislation or regulations across 12 states. Notably, 22 of these engagements came at the express invitation of state or local partners, including both advocates and lawmakers. The most popular topics were use of force, officer decertification, and data collection and transparency, but legislators also sought to address a wide range of others, from warrant reform to police use of robots, and more.
Today, the Center for Policing Equity (CPE) and the Policing Project at New York University School of Law released a new guidebook for law enforcement agencies, government officials and communities with best practices for collecting, analyzing and responding to data about traffic and pedestrian stops by law enforcement—a critical but often overlooked aspect of policing.
New York University School of Law today announced additional philanthropic funding to support the Policing Project. The expansion comes at a critical moment, as the death of community members at the hands of the police and discriminatory enforcement of orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the urgent need for this work.
As announced today by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Policing Project Faculty Director and Founder Barry Friedman will serve as a special advisor to help guide and support the New York Attorney General’s investigation into the recent interactions between the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and protesters following the death of George Floyd.
Policing Project Co-Founders Barry Friedman and Maria Ponomarenko joined a coalition of law school faculty — each of whom runs or is associated with a center devoted to the practice of policing and the criminal justice system — in releasing a list of urgently-needed reforms to address enduring problems in American policing.
Too often, we have focused on “police reform” and “police accountability” in moments like these. Yet, the very fact that we are here once again—as we were after rioting in the 1960s, or after Ferguson in 2014—suggests that police reform and police accountability as we have understood and implemented them simply are not working.
Police are tasked with ensuring public safety during extreme events and emergencies. But during unprecedented times–like we’re seeing now with the novel COVID-19 pandemic–many tried and tested methods for community engagement and outreach are breaking down. How should policing agencies adapt to meet the needs of vulnerable populations?
Following his return from Belgium where he co-hosted a round-table on facial recognition legislation on both sides of the Atlantic, Policing Project founder Barry Friedman penned a new op-ed for Just Security exploring the differences in European and American approaches to regulating the tech and the urgent need for greater action.
Automated License Plate Readers are one of the most widely used law enforcement systems in existence. Unfortunately, because of lack of data and study, we know very little about how large the benefits or costs are—all the more reason every community should do its best to be informed about how its law enforcement is using ALPRs.
To conclude our Fall 2019 salon series, the Policing Project and the Information Law Institute hosted a discussion of the regulation of facial recognition. As more jurisdictions are using the tech to aid law enforcement, there are sharp societal disagreements on where to draw the lines between acceptable and unacceptable uses.
This fall, the Policing Project kicked off our Tech Salon Series with two events. Our salons, made possible by support from Microsoft, enable us to vet our projects and discuss pressing issues around law enforcement’s use of technologies with a diverse set of experts, including privacy advocates, technology vendors, police chiefs, academics, legal experts, community leaders, and government officials.
