Summary
In this report, S.T.O.P. details the NYPD Domain Awareness System’s unparalleled invasion of New Yorkers’ privacy rights. Formed through a public-private partnership with Microsoft, the DAS is an opaque surveillance command center that collects data from tens of thousands of camera feeds, license plate readers, radiological sensors, and other spyware for real-time, warrantless surveillance of New Yorkers across the city. The report uses the NYPD’s own public statements to detail the scope of surveillance systems that monitor New Yorkers every day.
Key Findings Include:
The New York City Police Department’s Domain Awareness System (“DAS”) links citywide camera networks, license plate readers, drone and helicopter feeds, ShotSpotter gunshot alerts, 911 and 311 call records, and countless police records, law enforcement databases, and data streams into a single surveillance network.
Part sensor network, part search engine, the DAS is the backbone of the NYPD’s surveillance program. Every NYPD officer has unfettered access to DAS data on their smartphone, allowing them to use and misuse this information for nearly any purpose.
DAS surveillance drives discriminatory stops and arrests of BIPOC and Muslim New Yorkers by giving officers access to illegal and prejudicial information.
The NYPD has expanded the DAS rapidly without oversight and ignored court-mandated reforms.
