US police expand surveillance in response to Black Lives Matter protests

During the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, US police took advantage of a lack of regulation and new technologies to expand the scope of people and platforms they monitor; details typically emerge through lawsuits, public records disclosures, and stories released by police department PR as crime prevention successes. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice highlights New York Police Department threats to privacy, freedom of expression, and due process and the use of a predator drone operated by Customs and Border Patrol to surveil protesters in Minneapolis. Among the technologies of concern are facial recognition (used by the FBI and police departments in Florida, Ohio, Maryland, and California), video analytics, social media tracking, algorithmic analysis of crime data, Stingrays, drones, surveillance towers, and networked cameras.

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-police-use-tech-facial-recognition-ai-drones-2019-10

Writer: Aaron Holmes

Publication: Business Insider