Our biggest lawsuit yet!

Friend,

We’re in court a lot these days, but this week we filed a new federal civil rights lawsuit that is nothing short of monumental. Working with lawyers at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP (ECBAWM), we’re challenging the Domain Awareness System (DAS), the shadowy intelligence software at the heart of the NYPD's mass surveillance.

From tens of thousands of cameras, to automated license plate readers, social media monitoring, drones, and countless forms of AI, the DAS touches each of our lives in New York. The NYPD has done nothing short of putting an Orwellian surveillance state in every officer’s pocket, a mini-NSA they can access for seemingly any reason through a few swipes of their smart phone.

If we’re successful, we won’t just be able to dismantle the DAS here in New York; it will be a momentous win for our Constitution, a new model for civil rights in the digital age, and a roadmap for those fighting similar surveillance systems in thousands of police departments across America. And the lawsuit isn’t the only way we’re targeting the DAS’s illegal snooping. This week we also released Dragnet City, detailing how the DAS has grown to cost billions and spy on millions with some of the most invasive technologies on the planet.

This sort of work is the reason I founded STOP…the culmination of years of work. I couldn’t be prouder of our amazing team, cocounsel, and plaintiffs who are taking a stand to protect our city, our neighbors, and our constitution.