ACLU Attacks NYPD Photo Policy

NEW YORK---A federal district court judge heard arguments Tuesday on whether the police may not take and keep videotape and photographs of people engaging in lawful political demonstrations.

The argument marks another round in the New York Civil Liberties Union’s long-running class action lawsuit governing New York City Police Department surveillance of political activity, Handschu v. Special Services Division.

NYCLU attorneys and other counsel for the class will ask U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight to stop the New York City Police Department from acting on a regulation that it adopted in late 2004. Under the regulation, Interim Order 47, the police department claims it may photograph and videotape all political activity in New York City without restriction, and that it may retain those photographs and videotapes for unlimited periods of time. The NYCLU is asking Judge Haight to enjoin the police from implementing the regulation because it violates a consent decree entered in the case.

NYPD officers have been photographing and videotaping demonstrators aggressively since the months leading up to the Republican National Convention in August 2004. The police claim in the new regulation, adopted late that year, that they may retain the resulting photos and videos indefinitely. But a consent decree in the Handschu case provides that police may engage in the surveillance of political activity only when there is reason to believe that criminal activity is taking place or will take place. 3-28-06