This year, for the first time in history, the NYPD publicly disclosed its surveillance tools after the passage of the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. The law requires the NYPD to release reports on how these tools are used and allows the public 45 days to provide input that the department must consider when finalizing its policies. Critics, meanwhile, question whether laws like the POST Act are simply another police reform that fails to limit police power and instead legitimizes violent surveillance practices against Black and brown communities. The 2020 uprisings demonstrated the need to ban police technology instead of asking for transparency. MediaJustice’s Campaign Strategies Director Myaisha Hayes explains in Shadowproof.
“Legislating regulation or oversight are reforms that fail [to] shrink the power of the police—they seek to fix the police use of these tools rather than completely abolishing it.”
Myaisha Hayes via Shadwoproof
