Lawsuit against NYPD alleges its surveillance system is unconstitutional

A New York-based anti-surveillance advocacy group is suing the New York Police Department, arguing that its centralized policing platform and the technologies that power it are unconstitutional.

The nonprofit Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) filed the federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of two New Yorkers who have an NYPD video camera pointing into their home.

The city’s Domain Awareness System (DAS) uses video cameras, biometric tools, digital communications monitors and data and financial aggregation analytics to track and profile New Yorkers, according to the lawsuit.

Calling DAS a “voyeuristic policing platform that unifies into one centralized network more than a dozen technologies,” the lawsuit argues that DAS violates New Yorkers constitutional rights to freedom of speech and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The DAS is the result of a partnership with Microsoft and has been in use in New York since 2012. It is used to build digital profiles of all New Yorkers, according to STOP, which has recently obtained extensive information about how the system works through a public records request.

The newly obtained records show that DAS ties together citywide camera networks, license plate readers, drone and helicopter feeds, ShotSpotter gunshot alerts, 911 and 311 call records, and police records, law enforcement databases, and “data streams” into one surveillance network, according to STOP. 

All NYPD officers can access DAS on their mobile phones at any time, according to the nonprofit.

DAS is overseen by the police department’s Counterterrorism Bureau.

The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP along with STOP is representing the plaintiffs.