How US police use counterterrorism money to buy spy tech

Grant wealth meant to assistance cities hole for panic attacks is being spent connected surveillance exertion for US constabulary departments, a caller study shows. 

It’s been known that federal backing props up constabulary budgets, but the caller report, written by the advocacy organizations Action Center connected Race and Economy (ACRE), LittleSis, MediaJustice, and the Immigrant Defense Project, reveals that these national grants are bigger than antecedently understood. 

The Homeland Security Grant Program, tally by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has doled retired astatine slightest $28 cardinal to authorities and section agencies since 2002, according to the report’s authors. This wealth is intended for counterterrorism and tied to exigency preparedness backing that galore cities beryllium on. 

But the report finds that this national programme has really funded “massive purchases of surveillance technology.” For example, nationalist records obtained by the researchers recovered that the Los Angeles Police Department utilized backing from the programme to bargain automated licence sheet readers worthy astatine slightest $1.27 million, vigor instrumentality worthy upwards of $24 million, Palantir information fusion platforms (often utilized for predictive policing), societal media surveillance software, compartment tract simulators valued astatine implicit $600,000, and SWAT equipment. 

Because these grants are federally-funded it means purchases tin enactment retired of nationalist view. That’s due to the fact that portion astir constabulary backing comes from taxation dollars and has to beryllium accounted for, national grants don’t necessitate arsenic overmuch nationalist transparency and oversight. The report’s findings are yet different illustration of a increasing signifier successful which citizens are progressively kept successful the acheronian astir constabulary tech procurement.

“The acquisition and usage of constabulary surveillance exertion deserves greater scrutiny than galore different authorities purchases. These tools tin airs superior threats to civilian liberties,” Beryl Lipton, an investigative surveillance researcher astatine the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told MIT Technology Review successful an email aft reviewing the report. 

“However, we often spot a dearth of transparency erstwhile it comes to this benignant of equipment, successful immoderate cases due to the fact that agencies bash not privation to beryllium held accountable for their usage of specified invasive tools.”

“A hidden backing stream” 

The study highlights the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), which assists cities and their surrounding areas with counterterrorism. The study traces however “counterterrorism narratives” person been utilized by authorities agencies since 9/11 to warrant the instauration of a militarized constabulary unit and the detonation of nationalist surveillance. In 2022, UASI provided $615 cardinal to section and authorities agencies for counterterrorism activities, according to its website.

UASI is the largest programme wrong the Homeland Security Grant Program (itself portion of FEMA), which besides includes Operation Stonegarden, a borderline absorption program, and the State Homeland Security Program, a information exertion initiative.

“From our understanding, this is the archetypal wide and astir existent investigation of the program,” says Aly Panjwani, a elder probe expert astatine ACRE. He cautions that information was aggregated done records requests filed nether the Freedom of Information Act with the cities of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Boston and is truthful not comprehensive.

The study drew connected a big of nationalist records, and its fiscal calculations aggregate erstwhile probe with nationalist information from authorities websites. The organizations supply a database of recommendations, including a telephone for cities and states to cull backing from UASI and redirect investments into nationalist services similar lodging and education. They besides advocator that Congress abstracted exigency assistance from information backing and yet divest the Homeland Security Grant Program.

FEMA has not yet responded to a petition to comment. 

“This is astir similar a hidden backing watercourse that boosts section constabulary budgets and besides feeds into this web of information abstraction, information postulation and analysis, and reselling user data,” says Alli Finn, a elder researcher with the Immigrant Defense Project who worked connected the report.

Further, UASI is designed to necktie surveillance funding—under the umbrella of counterterrorism—to exigency preparedness programs that are important to galore cities. For example, 37% of New York City's projected exigency absorption fund for 2023 comes from national funding, astir each of it done UASI. In bid for a section authorities to get UASI grants, it indispensable walk astatine slightest 30% of its funds (as of 2022) connected instrumentality enforcement activities, according to the report.  

There’s nary specified happening arsenic escaped tech  

UASI isn’t the lone mode constabulary forces get their hands connected federally subsidized technology. The 1033 Program, named aft its establishing conception successful the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act, allows for excess subject instrumentality to beryllium transferred to instrumentality enforcement groups. Police person utilized it to get over $7 cardinal worthy of military-grade supplies similar tanks, autonomous crushed vehicles, and firearms. 

Some instrumentality is lone tracked for 1 twelvemonth aft the transfer, and the programme is arguable due to the fact that of the effect militarized constabulary person connected communities of color. And different little-known program, called the 1122 Program, allows authorities and section governments to usage national procurement channels that chopped costs by bundling acquisition orders and offering entree to discounts. The channels are disposable for “equipment suitable for counter-drug, homeland security, and exigency effect activities,” according to US law. 

Once purchased, each instrumentality different than weapons procured done 1122 is transferred from Department of Defense ownership to instrumentality enforcement agencies. An investigative study by Women for Weapons Trade Transparency recovered that nary maintained national database tracks 1122 purchases accessible by the public. Through FOIA requests, the radical uncovered $42 cardinal worthy of purchases done the program, including surveillance equipment.

And national programs are not the lone mode exertion is kept disconnected the books. 

Many exertion vendors supply “free trials” of their systems to constabulary agencies, sometimes for years, which avoids the request for a purchasing statement oregon fund approval. The arguable facial designation company Clearview AI provided escaped trials to anyone with an email code associated with the authorities oregon instrumentality enforcement bureau arsenic portion of its “flood-the-market” strategy. Our probe into Minnesota surveillance exertion recovered that galore different vendors offered akin incentives.

“Secretive national backing pipelines often let constabulary to sidestep elected officials and the nationalist to acquisition technologies that would ne'er different beryllium approved,” says Albert Fox Cahn, enforcement manager of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “It gives the constabulary a powerfulness nary different benignant of municipal bureau has. Teachers can’t usage national dollars to circumvent schoolhouse boards.”