On gang intel, NYPD does better than most
Manhattan: Re “Delete the NYPD gang database” (op-ed, Dec. 19): The piece assembles a long list of misrepresentations to indict the database as a racist tool of oppression, including comparisons with poorly run gang databases in Chicago and California. The answer to whether the NYPD is “engaging in similar misconduct” to other jurisdictions is an unequivocal “no.” We don’t stuff the database with false leads and names of innocent people. False information would undermine our detective work. Names are not entered merely because a person frequents gang areas, wears gang colors or tattoos or because the person associates with known gang members. Each name is vetted by a team of local gang experts and their supervisors, who are fully conversant with gang activity in their respective zones.
Inclusion in the database is not grounds for any enforcement action. It is one piece of intelligence that we use to gauge and analyze gang conditions. The NYPD regularly culls the database to eliminate people who have aged out of gangs and who have had no police involvement in the previous three years. The NYPD was not “forced to admit”
— it has freely acknowledged — that the people in the database are predominantly young men of color, as are the members of NYC street gangs. Are the authors suggesting that in a city with more than 500 active street gangs, the NYPD should make no effort to understand their operations and collate their memberships? That would be grossly irresponsible.
We brought down the Mafia in New York City by analyzing the Five Families and their memberships. We use the same methods against street gangs, which are frequently more violent than the Mafia ever was.
John Miller deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, NYPD