Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, Inc.

-against-

NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT

Status: Filed

Key issues: Police Practices, NYPD, Surveillance, Open Records, Privacy

Court: Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County

Docket:

Counsel: S.T.O.P. / Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

S.T.O.P. and our co-counsel are pursuing litigation under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL") to compel the NYPD to produce documents requested about their use of the “Sentiment Meter,” Orwellian technology developed with private surveillance vendor Elucd that tracks, block by block, what New Yorkers think of the police.

S.T.O.P. originally requested the NYPD records on November 26th, 2019, seeking to understand the NYPD’s role in co-developing Elucd’s sentiment monitoring software. Despite identifying over 100,000 records, documenting a year-long relationship, the NYPD is refusing to provide S.T.O.P. information.

Key Filings

The NYPD denied S.T.O.P.’s FOIL request on January 13, 2020, stating that it would be “unduly burdensome” to release all the documents related to the “Sentiment Meter” to the public. When S.T.O.P. filed an administrative appeal, it was denied the day after. S.T.O.P. and our co-counsel filed our petition in New York State Supreme Court on September 29, 2020. Litigation is ongoing.