NYPD Won't Tell You If They Think You're In A Gang: Legal Aid

NEW YORK — Advocates say the NYPD gave the same response to hundreds of New Yorkers who asked whether police thought they were in a gang: Sorry, we can't tell you.

The Legal Aid Society launched a campaign last February to help New Yorkers learn whether the NYPD had included them in its gang database, which the group says can ensnare people as young as 12. Anyone interested could use a simple online form to submit a Freedom of Information request for records used to classify them as a gang member.

Nearly all of the 350 people who have submitted the requests have gotten a generic rejection from the NYPD, Legal Aid said Friday. A letter from the Police Department with that response says the documents could not be released because the information they contain would "reveal non-routine techniques and procedures."

"Our clients and others have the right to know this information to help defend against gang accusations made by prosecutors in court," Anthony Posada, the supervising attorney of Legal Aid's Community Justice Unit, said in a statement. "We implore members of the public to contact us immediately if they share these concerns."

Law-enforcement agencies maintain databases of gang affiliations without giving the people in them a chance to challenge their inclusion, Legal Aid says. People are put in the databases based on where they live, who they know and what they look like rather than criminal activity, according to the group.

While it's uncertain exactly how many people are in the NYPD's gang database, the Police Department says the number in its Electronic Case Management System has been cut in half since 2014.

Legal Aid filed a lawsuit against the NYPD in December after it denied a FOIL request seeking information about Keith Shenery, a Harlem man whom prosecutors accused of being a "gang member" in a criminal case, according to the group. Lawyers representing Shenery in the lawsuit wanted the police records on which that designation was based.

Advocates have slammed the gang database as secretive, overbroad and sometimes inaccurate program that can have dire consequences for people who get caught in it.

New Yorkers who are labeled gang members can lose job opportunities, face consequences in school or even be deported if they're immigrants, according to Legal Aid. But the NYPD defended its case management system as a "vaulable tool" that's used to tackle gang violence.

"The NYPD maintains among the nation's most rigorous criteria for identifying an individual as being a member of a known criminal group," Sgt. Jessica McRorie, an NYPD spokeswoman, said in an email. "Whenever an inquiry has been made regarding the contents of this system, the NYPD response has been consistent with the laws governing FOIL requests."