Queens lawmakers question gang database tactics in letter to NYPD Inspector General
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Assemblymember Jeffrion Aubry signed a letter to the NYPD Inspector General asking for information about how the office tracks individuals included in its gang database. Photo via State Assembly.
By David Brand
Six Queens lawmakers have signed a letter to the NYPD Inspector General demanding that police share information about how they track individuals included in the department’s controversial gang database.
Assemblymembers Jeffrion Aubry, Ron Kim, Catalina Cruz and Aravella Simotas; State Sen. Jessica Ramos; and Councilmember Antonio Reynoso signed the letter asking for “a thorough investigation of the police department's tactics” related to social media surveillance, digital data mining, information-sharing with federal agencies and the process for removing individuals from the database. Fifteen other New York City elected officials added their name to the letter written by Assemblymember Dan Quart.
“As you may know, thousands of people have been catalogued as gang members within this secretive database — almost all of them are people of color,” the letter states. “I am requesting that your office provide a thorough investigation of the police department's tactics.”
The NYPD refers to its repository as the “criminal group database” and it includes close to 17,500 people believed to be affiliated with gangs, then-Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea testified at City Council hearing in 2018. Shea was named NYPD commissioner in November. The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.
The NYPD credits the database for helping facilitate large-scale raids and driving down gang-related violence, but tens of thousands of New Yorkers — nearly all black or Latino — have been entered into the database for arbitrary reasons, like the color of their clothing, critics say. People entered into the database typically do not know they are a part of it, a lack of transparency that prompted the NAACP and Center for Constitutional Rights to sue the NYPD for information last year.
The database reportedly included more than 40,000 New Yorkers — including hundreds of children ages 13 to 16 — in early 2018, but the exact number is impossible to determine without more transparency, Quart said
“The NYPD database is all five boroughs, and I have said I don’t believe in its existence — it’s deeply problematic and involves racial profiling,” Quart told the Eagle. “For the time being, we should focus on requiring greater disclosure and transparency for who is added to the database.”
Quart is running for Manhattan District Attorney and said he would eliminate the use of the database in prosecutions.
“In a very public way to advise people in the database from Manhattan that they were in the database,” he said.
