Planet Money
00:21:38 · Michelle Dahl, Amanda Aronczyk, Scott Stringer
[00:21:38] S1: I mean, have you lived here for any period of time? [00:21:41] S2: I asked the NYPD this question if I'm in the domain awareness system or not. And they said that if I had a driver's license or car registered in New York, then, yeah, I'm in there. But they said they would not look me up for, like, no reason. It can only be used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, like criminal investigations or civil litigation. Over the past thirty five years, we have gone from practically no cameras in the streets to practically no streets without cameras. And since 09/11, those cameras have been integrated into this web of tech, tracking our movements and our faces and tying them to our names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, and more. So I've told you the story of the rise of this incredibly thorough surveillance system in New York. Now for the story of how a lot of it happened behind our backs, and that is because there has been a kind of technological creep, and a lot of that creep happened in secret. In New York, there was an actual secret agreement to keep this hidden. The NYPD went to the mayor and a handful of city agencies and was like, what if we wanted to buy a lot of new police stuff, but we wanted to keep it on the down low? After the break, the secret agreement that kept thousands of police purchases and tech contracts out [00:23:07] S9: of the [00:23:08] S2: public eye and the fight to expose it all.
00:23:08 · Amanda Aronczyk, S0, S5, S3
[00:23:08] S2: public eye and the fight to expose it all. [00:23:16] S0: This message comes from Ameriprise Financial. Chief market strategist Anthony Saglenbeni shares how Ameriprise financial advisers help clients reach their goals through personalized advice. [00:23:27] S5: It starts by just asking questions, learning their financial well-being, their dreams, and then you can take that and start applying it to creating an investment portfolio that's designed to meet those goals. [00:23:40] S0: For more information and important disclosures, visit ameriprise.com/advice. Securities offered by Ameriprise Financial Services LLC, member FINRA, and SIPC. [00:23:51] S3: This message comes from Apollo. The world's leading companies don't need off the shelf financing solutions. That's where Apollo comes in. Apollo provides access to long duration capital and a broad range of financing capabilities, helping companies develop customized financing solutions designed around their strategic objectives and structured at an efficient cost of capital. Learn more at apollo.com/capital. This message comes from Capital One. Capital One offers checking accounts with no fees or minimums. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com/bankguy for details. Capital One NA, member FDIC.
00:23:51 · S3, S0
[00:23:51] S3: This message comes from Apollo. The world's leading companies don't need off the shelf financing solutions. That's where Apollo comes in. Apollo provides access to long duration capital and a broad range of financing capabilities, helping companies develop customized financing solutions designed around their strategic objectives and structured at an efficient cost of capital. Learn more at apollo.com/capital. This message comes from Capital One. Capital One offers checking accounts with no fees or minimums. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capital1.com/bankguy for details. Capital One NA, member FDIC. [00:24:32] S0: This message comes from Babson College. The world needs entrepreneurial leaders, and you can become one at Babson College. Gain the skills to lead, motivate, and inspire through a specialized master's or MBA program with full time, part time, and online options. Turn ideas into action with a graduate program that caters to your professional needs and fits your lifestyle. Ranked number one in entrepreneurship by US News and World Report. Visit babson.edu/gradprograms.
00:24:32 · S0, Amanda Aronczyk, Scott Stringer
[00:24:32] S0: This message comes from Babson College. The world needs entrepreneurial leaders, and you can become one at Babson College. Gain the skills to lead, motivate, and inspire through a specialized master's or MBA program with full time, part time, and online options. Turn ideas into action with a graduate program that caters to your professional needs and fits your lifestyle. Ranked number one in entrepreneurship by US News and World Report. Visit babson.edu/gradprograms. [00:25:02] S2: So in law enforcement, there is this tension between security and transparency. Because when the police are trying to catch bad guys, they don't want the bad guys to know all the things that they're up to. But that secrecy allows law enforcement to use tools we don't know about, and that can be risky too. This half of this story is about a secret deal that allowed police to build a massive surveillance system without much public oversight. This deal came to light when, in New York, a few key people started noticing that the police had some new tactics and tricks that they weren't telling the public about. One of those key people was the former New York City comptroller, Scott Stringer. Comptroller. [00:25:47] S9: Controller. Comptroller.
00:25:47 · Scott Stringer, Amanda Aronczyk
[00:25:47] S9: Controller. Comptroller. [00:25:49] S2: In New York, that means the person in charge of city finances. When Scott Stringer came into office in 2014, he was told that if the NYPD wanted to buy some new tech or software that they didn't wanna make public for security reasons, they could classify it as a special expense. A special expense that did not need to be scrutinized by the city council or by the public. [00:26:12] S9: So they would come in. They would brief us about what they wanted to do. And in the old agreement, was like, okay. Wink wink. Nod nod. Security, we understand. [00:26:22] S2: This wink wink, nod nod system had been established years earlier, all the way back in 2007, when the comptroller and former mayor Bloomberg, plus a couple of city agencies, agreed to a memo of understanding with NYPD about the special expenses. [00:26:39] S9: Well, you know, remember, it was not that far away from nine eleven. Right. And so part of what I think people felt was that enhanced security and having every tool at your disposal was important. [00:26:53] S2: But Scott Stringer was like, is this okay? Normally, when a city agency wants to make some big purchase, even a new set of history books for sixth graders, there's a whole process for it, and it's designed to ensure public accountability. They take requests for bids, select a vendor, submit that vendor to be vetted. And within that process, there might be a big public debate about it.
00:26:53 · Amanda Aronczyk, Scott Stringer
[00:26:53] S2: But Scott Stringer was like, is this okay? Normally, when a city agency wants to make some big purchase, even a new set of history books for sixth graders, there's a whole process for it, and it's designed to ensure public accountability. They take requests for bids, select a vendor, submit that vendor to be vetted. And within that process, there might be a big public debate about it. [00:27:16] S9: It's a check, and we are a city of checks and balances. That's why we have a city council. That's why you have a controller. That's That's why you have an independent budget office. You know, all of this is to check a very powerful police department and a powerful mayor no matter who the mayor is. [00:27:30] S2: So a few years into the wink wink nod nod agreement with the NYPD, Scott Stringer was like, maybe skipping public debate about all of this new tech that the NYPD is buying is a mistake. [00:27:42] S9: When you're going to look at a technology, well, it it can't be, you know, five guys in a room. It has to be, will this pass the smell test? Are are we dealing with good actors? Are the contractors honest? Is their pay to play? A tool is important if it's effective. But how do we measure if it's effective if there's no oversight?