New York’s anti-police ‘privacy’ loons are intent on endangering NYCHA tenants

It may infuriate the anti-cop “privacy” loons, but news that the NYPD has direct access to cameras in public areas in public-housing projects is excellent.

The left-leaning journos at online news site New York Focus see a scary “massive expansion of real-time surveillance in NYCHA housing” via the city’s Big Apple Connect program that for three years has provided free internet to 330,000 New York City Housing Authority tenants.

Under a city-NYCHA accord, cops use the connections to integrate NYCHA cameras directly into the NYPD’s central digital surveillance system — so police don’t have to go through the time-consuming process of getting the NYCHA feeds on a case-by-case basis.

The same folks who freaked out over Fire Department investigators sharing crime-fighting information with their police colleagues now baselessly claim cops will share the video feed with federal immigration authorities.

For more than two decades, the NYPD’s VIPER unit has successfully used security cameras at some developments to enhance real-time vertical patrols, criminal investigations and predictive policing. 

Speedier access to all available NYCHA video feeds means thugs who shoot, maim or otherwise victimize public-housing tenants get ID’d, nabbed and prosecuted more quickly.

The city Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act requires the Police Department to report on its policies and use of this tech; that’s more than enough to catch any abuse of the NYCHA feeds.

With the NYPD short on manpower and already hemmed in by state and city “criminal-justice reforms,” smart use of technology is vital to public safety. 

Of course, public safety is the last thing on the minds of Legal Aid, the NYCLU, defense attorneys, City Council progressives and all the other usual pro-crime suspects.