Police Contracts Under the Lens: A New Look at NYPD and ICE Ties
Mayor’s Office Audits NYPD Over Immigration Enforcement and Tech Partnerships
The mayor’s office has launched a comprehensive review of the New York Police Department (NYPD), examining not only how the force handles immigration enforcement but also its relationships with private vendors. The audit zeroes in on Vigilant, a California‑based company that supplies license‑plate‑reading technology widely used by police across the country. Since 2014, NYPD has spent over $2 million on Vigilant’s systems, raising concerns about how data from these tools might be shared with federal agencies.
Key points of the audit:
- Data Access Rules
The audit, sent to the department in early April, requests all regulations governing whether and how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials can access the NYPD’s real‑time plate data. It highlights that Vigilant also works with ICE, a fact underscored in an ACLU report from 2019. That study claimed ICE accessed a national database containing billions of plate records, and that many police departments had agreed to share information with the agency in ways potentially violating local privacy laws.
NYPD’s Position
NYPD officials assert they do not hand over plate data to ICE and that the department does not participate in immigration enforcement. They emphasize that Vigilant’s database is used for investigating crimes, but their own data is not fed into the national system that ICE can pull from. A city investigation found that, with few exceptions, the NYPD follows sanctuary policies.Response to ICE Requests
The audit also addresses how police should respond when ICE asks for backup. This issue surfaced after a chaotic incident at a Brooklyn hospital last week, where ICE agents brought in a detainee and police had to separate protesters. Local politicians demanded clearer rules, insisting that New York is a sanctuary city and police should not coordinate with ICE at all.Broader Scope
Drafted by Bitta Mostofi, a senior immigration adviser in the mayor’s office, the audit is part of a broader effort covering departments of correction, probation, social services, health and children’s services.Timeline
The NYPD has been asked to submit a draft response by April 20, with the final audit expected by May 7. Whether the completed reports will be made public remains unclear.
