As a result of 99% of individuals within the NYPD’s secretive prison group database (higher generally known as the gang database) are Black or Brown, advocates need the surveillance instrument 100% gone.
Councilmember Athea Stevens championed Intro. 798 at a public security listening to on Monday, Feb. 24, which might abolish the gang database and forestall the NYPD (in addition to different metropolis businesses) from resurrecting such practices beneath another title. Advocates rallied outdoors Metropolis Corridor earlier than the listening to and councilmember Yusef Salaam, the invoice co-sponsor, who chaired the listening to, pumped his fist and chanted together with the rally whereas he made his method to the chamber.
“You can not inform me that in New York Metropolis, we solely have Black and Brown gangs,” mentioned Stevens. “When you go locations to search for it, you’ll discover it. And why aren’t you going into different communities? That is about surveillance, that is about oppression, and that is about not trusting our communities.”
The database at the moment has roughly 13,200 folks tied to 500 gangs, in line with the NYPD. Placement stems extra from “guilt by affiliation” than an precise prison report. “Self-admission” via social media posts, hand gestures, clothes shade, and emojis can all be used to find out gang participation. The NYPD doesn’t inform people who’re within the database — many find out about their inclusion via public information requests filed by the Authorized Help Society.
These within the database embrace Kraig Lewis, who was arrested by federal officers within the “Bronx 120” racketeering bust whereas he was ending up college out of state. He mentioned his avocational rap lyrics and proximity to 2 warring gangs in Eastchester Gardens led to his inclusion within the sweep, regardless of prosecutors by no means accusing him of gang participation in his case. The aspiring lawyer didn’t end his diploma and spent two years in federal jail after pleading responsible to a weed cost.
“[The] gang database classifies a group as a complete, and it doesn’t classify these youths as people,” mentioned Lewis. “This results in them being caught within the internet that they will’t escape from. I imagine the crimes dedicated by people must be charged to the person and never destroy the entire group.”
Neighborhood organizer Marquis Jenkins, who launched Stevens to the database, got here to tears when describing Lewis’s case throughout the rally. “All of these little issues, these small hobbies that another youngster of another race can do, we’re being criminalized for,” he mentioned.
The NYPD applied current reforms after a 2023 NYC Division of Investigation report advisable extra transparency and particular insurance policies relating to classifying minors as gang members (police entered kids as younger as 11). The division decreased the variety of juveniles within the database from 440 in 2019 to 160. Total, extra names are at the moment being purged than added.
In his testimony, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber confirmed that 99% of the database consists of individuals of shade, however mentioned such disparities stem from gun violence prevention efforts. Police officers refused to think about the disparity a product of racial profiling. Throughout the listening to, Gerber pointed to new rising prison teams and “determined” calls for for extra intelligence about them.
His testimony additionally maintained that gang participation standing wouldn’t be “shared with employers, faculties, landlords, or civil immigration authorities” and couldn’t be a think about police stops and arraignment choices.
“The important thing to stopping that cycle of violence is having correct, speedy intelligence relating to gang membership, location, and rivalries; realizing when gang-violence is about to spiral; and intervening rapidly to forestall it,” mentioned Gerber in an NYPD-provided transcript. “If we all know from the database {that a} taking pictures sufferer is a gang member, the identities of rival gang members, and the place these gangs are primarily based, we are able to instantly deploy officers in a manner that can assist forestall retaliatory shootings.
“Will we at all times reach that effort? No. However typically, due to the database and the arduous work of our officers, we do.”
Intro. 798 proponents contend the city-funded Disaster Administration System (CMS) already exists to deal with such tasks. Credible messengers, many who’re former gang members themselves, use their data and relationships of their neighborhoods to squash beefs and forestall retaliation after shootings.
Such “violence interruption” applications are backed by information. From 2010 to 2019, CMS program areas decreased shootings by 40%. But the numbers stay murkier about whether or not gang databases enhance public security in a marked manner. NYPD officers couldn’t present direct percentages or numbers for shootings stopped when Stevens requested for them throughout the listening to (they as an alternative pointed to particular person examples).
Analysis from the NAACP Authorized Protection Fund confirmed no statistical important change when Chicago and Portland erased their gang databases. In reality, incidents went down after the choices, though researchers attributed the declines to “seasonal cyclical patterns.”
“Any policing program that solely targets communities of shade is an inherent hurt for certain, however all of this know-how [ties] again to tangible in-person harms on the road,” mentioned NAACP Authorized Protection Fund’s David Moss over the telephone. “What we see is a development of tech-washing, the place a follow is given a veneer of legitimacy as a result of it’s wrapped up in know-how or numbers or statistics. On the finish of the day, it’s a recycling of dangerous info that’s rinsed via a washer of know-how after which spat again out onto the road.
“The NYPD primarily confirmed this [at Monday’s hearing] — that for all this info that they’re gathering and accumulating, they’re then utilizing that to deploy folks to the identical communities that they’ve been aggressively policing ceaselessly.”
Practically each individual entered within the prison group database was arrested for a criminal offense, however only a quarter have been ever convicted of felony, testified NYPD officers. Round 45% of the folks entered on the database have been arrested with a firearm and “virtually” a 3rd have been a taking pictures perpetrator or suspects. Nonetheless, meaning roughly 8,712 folks on the database haven’t been formally suspected of a taking pictures and seven,260 have by no means been caught with a gun in any respect.
Moss mentioned the Intro. 798 listening to left him extra optimistic about efforts to abolish the gang database and that the NYPD’s testimony validated advocates’ issues publicly.
Tempers flared throughout the listening to when NYPD officers requested Public Advocate Jumaane Williams to “keep in mind the victims” when discussing the function of the gang database in gun violence prevention.
“I’ve been to extra funerals than you, I assure [it], they usually appear to be me and their moms appear to be mine,” mentioned Williams. “Don’t imagine you care extra about this violence than I do … That is the issue you’ve with the group. I’m glad it’s being proven proper now.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America (RFA) corps member who writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps preserve him writing tales like this one; please contemplate making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity in the present day by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
