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• Thousands of NYPD records secured by the rights groups detail expansive and unlawful surveillance of protesters, and Black, Indigenous and People of Colour communities. 

Records obtained by Amnesty International and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.), a New York-based privacy and civil rights group, after a five-year long lawsuit against the New York Police Department (NYPD) reveal concerning surveillance abuses against protesters and communities of colour, including the frequent use of rights-violating facial recognition technology.  

Analysis by Amnesty International and the S.T.O.P. of the over 2,700 documents to date reveals that facial recognition technologies (FRT) were used on several occasions by the NYPD, subjecting New Yorkers to invasive, flawed, and deeply discriminatory surveillance technologies. 

The documents further revealed that the technology had been used to identify individuals based on unsolicited reports by the public that deemed certain individuals suspicious on the basis of speaking a different language or wearing culturally distinctive attire. 

“These costly, error-prone, and biased technologies are wasting billions of dollars. NYPD surveillance puts our neighbors at risk of false arrest, deportation, or even worse. It’s long past time that New Yorkers should see the dystopian ways that the NYPD watches all of us. Now is the moment for lawmakers to take action and hold the NYPD accountable, outlawing facial recognition and imposing true civilian oversight.” 

Read full article on USA: Amnesty International, S.T.O.P. Lawsuit Reveals NYPD Surveillance Abuses