"In one of his first acts as an officially lame duck mayor, Eric Adams announced on Monday that he's extending a controversial tech program well into his successor's tenure - just a day before four City Council committees are set to hold a joint oversight hearing on it. Adams issued a press release Monday morning announcing the three-year renewal of Big Apple Connect, which currently provides free internet to 330,000 public housing residents."
"New York Focus reported last month that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) is using the program as a backdoor for undisclosed live video surveillance at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments, and city legislators are set to grill the administration on the covert surveillance expansion tomorrow. "The Mayor's decision to expand this program just one day before a scheduled Council oversight hearing is not just disrespectful, it's a deliberate effort to undermine the communities we represent,""
"The program has allowed the NYPD to link public housing cameras to its Domain Awareness System, which fuses troves of data on New Yorkers into comprehensive profiles, is often synced with facial recognition tools, and is core to the department's "predictive policing" methods. Adams did not mention the video surveillance component of the program in his announcement of the extension."
Mayor Eric Adams announced a three-year renewal of Big Apple Connect, extending contracts with Altice USA and Spectrum through June 2028 and keeping free internet for 330,000 public housing residents. The renewal came one day before a scheduled City Council joint oversight hearing and drew criticism from Councilmember Chris Banks as undermining represented communities. The program costs about $38 million annually, implying roughly $114 million over three years. Reporting indicates the NYPD has used the program as a backdoor for undisclosed live video surveillance at NYCHA developments. Those cameras feed the Domain Awareness System, which fuses data into profiles, is often synced with facial recognition, and supports predictive policing. Adams did not mention the surveillance component in the announcement.
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