NYC passes POST Act, requiring police department to reveal surveillance tech

This is fantastic! I hope other cities follow suit and the restoration of civil liberties continues.

> The NYPD’s use of DAS is not restricted to suspected criminals or terrorists, and the collected data is retained for upwards of years.

This is concerning, too. I'd like to see some sort of federal requirement prohibiting agencies from storing data including metadata for excessive periods of time. I don't know what a reasonable limit would be but it should probably be on the order of months.

As I understand it (not a lawyer or law enforcement), 4A protections effectively only apply where either the search is of a space where the subject has a "reasonable expectation of privacy" or the police are actually handling the subject's property (e.g. attaching a GPS tracker to a vehicle).

For it to be admissible in court.

Most people can’t afford an attorney and end up taking a plea.

There is something even MORE important to be released and that is the police training manuals and materials which the NYPD have been hiding from FOIL requests for over a decade now.

To all New Yorkers: You are currently NOT ENTITLED to see the methods and techniques taught at the NYPD academy.

Requests are being denied on these grounds: "Deniable records include records or portions thereof that: (e) are compiled for law enforcement purposes and which if disclosed would: iv. reveal criminal investigative techniques or procedures, except routine techniques and procedures;"

You can do ALPR at a decent level with $100 of hardware. The cost of doing surveillance isn't necessarily going to be a lot