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For more than than 3 years, ProPublica has been fighting to force the NYPD to disclose the details of its armada of X-ray vans. Before this year, New York State Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that the NYPD couldn't shield itself from Freedom of Data requests just because disclosing armada details could interefere with ongoing investigations. The New York Ceremonious Liberties Union has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefing arguing against the NYPD'due south position, but New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton continues to stonewall reporters.

"Those are issues I'd prefer not to divulge to the public at this time," Bratton said. "I volition not talk nigh anything at all nigh this — it falls into the range of security and counter-terrorism activity that nosotros engage in."

That type of "It's for your own practiced," attitude is precisely the kind of carte blanche that created the modernistic NSA in the starting time place. The NYPD is neither a military system nor a government agency tasked with protecting New Yorkers from far-flung threats across the earth. It's a local police force that serves the needs of its own citizens, and its policies and practices must exist open to civilian review. As the recently-filed amicus brief notes, "How is the NYPD ensuring that innocent New Yorkers are not subject to harmful ten-ray radiations? How long is the NYPD keeping the images that it takes and who can await at them? Is the NYPD obtaining judicial authorization prior to taking images, and if so, what type of authorization? Is the engineering funded past taxpayer money, and has the utilize of the vans justified the price tag? The current price tag is betwixt $729,000 and $825,000 per van.

While these vehicles are referred to as 10-ray vans, they don't use conventional 10-ray imaging. Instead, they rely on backscatter technology. Conventional X-ray machines detect hard and soft materials based on how much energy makes it through the target, while backscatter X-rays notice how much free energy is reflected from the target. These are the machines that raised substantial privacy concerns when they were first deployed. The image beneath is Susan Hallowell, director of the Transportation Security Administration'southward research lab.

Backscatter_x-ray_image_woman

The NYPD's refusal to plow over data related to its utilize of these technologies runs afoul of multiple Supreme Court rulings and condom regulations. First, the Supreme Court has ruled in the past that using loftier-tech sensors to search a person'southward house or person is illegal unless a warrant is obtained. Second, in that location'due south very real concerns over the safety of backscatter X-ray devices. In her initial conclusion, Estimate Ling-Cohan wrote:

Petitioner states in his affirmation, and respondent does not dispute, that: backscatter technology, previously deployed in Eu airports, was banned in 2022, considering of health concerns; an internal presentation from American Science and Engineering science, Inc., the company that articles the vans, determined that the vans deliver a radiations dose 40 percentage larger than delivered by a backscatter airport scanner; bystanders present when the van is in employ are exposed to the radiation that the van emits… moreover, petitioner maintains, and it is not disputed past the NYPD, that 'there may be pregnant health risks associated with the use of backscatter ten-ray devices as these machines use ionizing radiations, a type of radiation long known to mutate Deoxyribonucleic acid and crusade cancer.

Backscatter and the inverse square law

Without proper oversight, it's impossible to know if the NYPD is deploying its backscatter applied science in a manner that guarantees the safety of both its ain drivers and the general public. Backscatter X-rays, like other forms of electromagnetic radiations, follow the inverse square law, which states that the intensity of the energy radiating from a point source is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from an object. In English, this means that an object twice as far away only receives 1/4 the energy. Wikipedia notes that while the Earth is 3 times farther from the sunday than Mercury, the latter planet receives nine times equally much radiation. Mars is roughly four times farther from the lord's day than Mercury, and receives roughly 1/16 every bit much solar radiation.

This has straight correlation to the backscatter X-ray question and its bear on on wellness. Much has been written about the bear upon of properly-tuned backscatter systems operating in airports. Backscatter systems operating in mobile vehicles are an entirely different question. How were these deployed? Did the NYPD articulate the expanse of humans before it activated the systems? Has anyone ever walked between a backscatter system and its intended target, and what steps did the NYPD accept to inform the individual of the potential risks of having done and so?

These are not modest quibbles over fact-finding and the NYPD, different the Usa military, is directly appreciative to the citizens of New York City, which it claims to protect. Those citizens have a correct to know when the metropolis deploys new, incredibly expensive technologies that vacuum upwards tax dollars and create potential wellness issues. That'south earlier nosotros bear on on the nature of such surveillance, which previous cases have established should merely be used when a warrant has already been secured.

The "simply trust us" defense was tired before the Snowden leaks. Two-and-one-half years later on, it's completely bankrupt. Time and time again, we've seen ample bear witness that various authorities in America have abused their power, lied to judges about the nature of surveillance, and fought for the correct to spy on ordinary Americans in complete disregard for such minor niceties every bit due procedure of constabulary.