Who’s policing police who misuse AI tech?

Opelika, Ala.: Re “NYPD probes department’s use of AI license plate readers” (Oct. 1): The NYPD has a contract with Vigilance. Nevertheless, officers accessed Flock Safety data 1,710 times in 33 months, per LatinoJustice and Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. Thus, the NYPD enacted guidelines about officers using unauthorized vendors. An NYPD spokesperson suggests the new guidelines are unrelated to the expose. Really? It’s unknown if the NYPD has analyzed every search, but the spokesman expressed confidence that they didn’t break department rules.

It’s imperative that the NYPD determine why in 614 searches, officers didn’t identify why they searched and used numerical codes or shorthand that obscured, not illuminated, the search. Do NYPD guidelines consider the cameras’ intrusiveness, mass surveillance and possible Fourth Amendment violations, or are they willingly oblivious to the furors these cameras and rogue officers have incited? One miscreant — Lufkin, Texas, officer Zachary Anthony Klein — was sentenced to five years in prison. District Attorney Amy Wren said there were more than 25,000 misuses of official information. Do NYPD policies penalize, suspend or fire officers who abuse license plate data? Michael Steffman, former police chief of Braselton, Ga., searched his ex-girlfriend’s license plates 600 times. He committed suicide after he was arrested.

Police agencies must fire officers who abuse cameras and work with DAs to file criminal charges.

Briarwood: The NYPD is absolutely right about not chasing after super-speeder........

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