Policing the City: A Conversation with Matthew Guariglia

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service. A couple of weeks ago, the New York City Policy Department (NYPD) failed to appear – for the third time – before the New York City Council to answer questions about its use of surveillance technologies. NYPD is required to disclose information about its complement of cameras, robots, social media monitoring software, drones, and various other surveillance technologies under the the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act. According to Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Corinne Worthington and Aaron Greenberg in a recent post on Tech Policy Press, NYPD has so far failed miserably to comply with most of the POST Act’s requirements. Observers of NYPD are likely not surprised to hear that it has little interest in explaining to the public how it spends its multibillion dollar budget, particularly when it comes to new technology. But how far back do you have to go to really understand the origins of the department’s recalcitrance? And what does the history of the NYPD tell us about the origins of modern policing beyond New York? Today’s guest is Dr. Matthew Guariglia, a senior policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and author of the new book, Police and the Empire City: Race and the Origins of Modern Policing in New York, just out from Duke University Press. Guariglia says we’re really living in a world of police surveillance built in the early 20th century, even as police departments wield powers that only a few…Policing the City: A Conversation with Matthew Guariglia