Activists Who Helped Elect Birmingham Mayor Balk at Police Expansion Plans Mayor Randall Woodfin is increasing police funding and ignoring calls for non-law enforcement public safety alternatives. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Prosecutors Are Using Gang Laws To Criminalize Protest Prosecutors in states ranging from New York to Utah are using decades-old gang laws to target participants in the largest uprising against police brutality in U.S. history. Ali Winston
NYPD Expands Use Of Controversial Subpoenas To Criminal Cases Administrative subpoenas—which do not require a judge’s approval—are typically used for the department’s internal investigations, but The Appeal has learned that they are being used in criminal cases. Ali Winston
Government Enforcement of Quarantine Raises Concerns About Increased Surveillance Louisville, Kentucky judges are ordering people with COVID-19 who have allegedly defied quarantine to wear GPS ankle monitors, raising ethical questions about the government's role in a pandemic. Kira Lerner
As the U.S. Scrambles to Slow Coronavirus, We Should Be Wary of Increased Surveillance When the dust settles on this pandemic, we need to be clear on what was an emergency response and what is a desirable permanent change. James Kilgore
Legislation on New York City’s Sprawling Systems of Surveillance Finally Gets A Hearing A City Council Committee considers a bill on NYPD surveillance today. Ali Winston
Michael Bloomberg Should Apologize For More Than Stop-and-Frisk, Critics Say The billionaire and former New York City mayor defended the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim Americans and mandatory minimum prison sentences for gun possession, among other policies. Aaron Morrison
Uncritical Reporting on a Biased Baltimore Spy Plane Poll A close examination of a poll backed by a business group reveals loaded questions, undisclosed conflicts of interest, and the shortchanging of very real privacy concerns. Adam H. Johnson
Tech Company Gave Two New Orleans-Area Sheriff’s Offices Access to Track Cell Phones Without Warrants Neither agency had written policies on how to capture or store the location data without violating privacy rights. Emily Lane
With Vast Surveillance Network, Pittsburgh D.A. Has ‘Created A Dystopian Reality’ Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala has gotten into the surveillance game, but advocates say that raises questions about his role. Kira Lerner
Pushed to Curb Use of Cash Bail By January, Indiana Relies On ‘Knee-Jerk’ Alternative Advocates warn that overuse of ankle monitors and other forms of electronic monitoring produce consequences of their own. Kira Lerner
‘Is This The Guy?’ Police and prosecutors claimed facial recognition technology wasn’t at the center of a shoplifting case, but defense attorneys say it was the sole basis for probable cause to arrest. Mike Hayes
Body Cameras And Tasers Rake In Billions For Axon, But They’re No Panacea For Police Violence The popularity of Axon’s tech soared after the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014, but it may be doing more harm than good in protecting people from excessive force. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Spotlight: Neighborhood Crime Apps Stoke Fears, Reinforce Racist Stereotypes, And Don’t Prevent Crime Sarah Lustbader
New Orleans Police Appear to Use Surveillance to Initiate Investigations City officials say its vast network of cameras are simply a tool when responding to 911 calls and complaints of criminal activity. But several cases suggest the system serves an additional purpose. Mike Hayes
Prison Tech Company Is Questioned for Retaining ‘Voice Prints’ of People Presumed Innocent Defense attorneys say they were unaware of the practice and are unclear on how they can expunge the data of nonconvicted clients. George Joseph, Debbie Nathan
Prisons Across the U.S. Are Quietly Building Databases of Incarcerated People’s Voice Prints The technology also allows authorities to mine call databases and cross-reference the voices of individuals prisoners have spoken with. George Joseph, Debbie Nathan
Baltimore’s ‘Eye in the Sky’ Plane Is Back With A New Pitch: Surveil The Police Dismal police accountability has made communities vulnerable to private vendors. Brandon Soderberg, Raven Rakia
Pennsylvania Prisons Hired A Private Company To Intercept And Store Prisoners’ Mail The company is being paid $4 million a year to open and scan prisoners’ mail into a searchable database. Raven Rakia
Facing Lawsuit, NYPD Changes How Officers Use Sealed Arrest Data Arrests that result in dropped charges and dismissals are supposed to be sealed. But until recently, the NYPD used these records to target turnstile jumpers. Simon Davis-Cohen, George Joseph
Meet ‘Bob Smith,’ The Fake Facebook Profile Memphis Police Allegedly Used To Spy On Black Activists New records obtained by the Appeal show the account seems to have been monitoring Black Lives Matter activists for years. George Joseph
US Attorney’s Office That Prosecuted Inauguration Day Protesters Has History of Misconduct Findings Prosecutors on the "J20" case faced grave allegations of misconduct after withholding exculpatory evidence contained in videos from defense attorneys. But this is far from the first time that this office has found itself in hot water. Jessica Brand, Ethan Brown
Memphis Police Collected Black Lives Matter Activists’ Private Facebook Posts Police appear to have used a fake Facebook account to 'friend' activists and archive who 'liked' their posts. George Joseph
Former Baltimore Police Officer Criticizes The Department’s Gang Database A onetime gang liaison for the Baltimore Police Department writes that its database is racist and error-ridden. Larry Smith
Buffalo Lawsuit Challenges ‘Racial Profiling’ in Traffic Stops Advocacy group demands an end to traffic checkpoints concentrated in Black and Latinx areas. Prince Shakur
The Appeal Podcast Episode 5: How Silicon Valley Supports LAPD Surveillance With Appeal staff reporter George Joseph. Adam H. Johnson
Police Accountability and Public Defender Groups Demand Transparency on NYPD Gang Policing Max Rivlin-Nadler
How the Manhattan DA’s Use of Big Data Targeting Risks Changing the Rules of Prosecution Andrew Guthrie Ferguson
ICE Is Making Its Massive Data Collection Effort Secret As It Labels More and More Immigrants ‘Gang Members’ Max Rivlin-Nadler
