“Gang databases” sound like key enforcement tools. But find out how they work in practice & who they target. They’re an over-broad surveillance tool used far more often to stop/frisk young people of color than to stop gang crime. Thread breaking this down: theintercept.com/2018/06/11/new…
1. OVERBROAD: My clients who are not gang members are routinely identified as gang members. With wildly over-broad criteria, if you’re a person of color in a certain neighborhood, there’s a good chance you’ll be in the database, whether you’re in a gang or not.
2. CRITERIA-BEHAVIOR: “Staying out late” & “changes in behavior,” as well as use of video games, SnapChat, and Instagram — that could easily apply to most teenagers and young adults” can get you on the database.
3. CRITERIA-COLORS: NYPD looks for “colors associated with major gangs: black, gold, yellow, red, purple, green, blue, white, brown, khaki, gray, orange, & lime green. Attorney: “I don’t think there’s a single color that exists that wouldnt fit into one of those potential gangs.”
4. CRITERIA-FRIENDS: A client told an officer he knew someone in a gang. “We’re essentially criminalizing friendships. We’re talking about kids who attend school together, grew up in the same neighborhood, play basketball together, communicate with their friends on social media.”
5. RACIALLY DISPARATE: “According to the NYPD’s categories, nearly 66% of those added to database between Dec. 2013 & Feb. 2018 were black & 33% were Hispanic. Only 0.8 percent of the 17,452 people added to the list were white.” 99% people of color!!
6. ERROR PRONE: “As these databases have grown more common, so have reports of the many errors they contain: CalGang, a database widely used in California, listed 42 infants under the age of 1 as active gang members.”
7. UNNECESSARY: “Crimes committed to advance the interests of a gang” comprised just “0.1 percent of all reported crime in the city between 2013 and 2017.” “Crime committed by alleged gang members” comprised just 1.7 percent of all reported crime.”
8. DAMAGING: Already overpoliced & targeted young men of color are more likely to be stopped. Case outcomes are negatively affected. Shared with ICE, “gang databases are used to target undocumented individuals for deportation regardless of their criminal history.”
9. YET GROWING: “New Yorkers have been added to the NYPD gang database under de Blasio at a rate of 342 people per month, nearly three times the rate of the prior decade. That’s despite both historically low crime levels.” 
AN EFFORT TO PUSH BACK: information is power. @LegalAidNYC launched a website to help New Yorkers file public records requests to learn whether they are listed in the database. legalaidfoil.backspace.com
