The Legal Aid Society is condemning the City for failing to release demographic information of New Yorkers ensnared in the local DNA database. At a City Council oversight hearing three years ago, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) pledged that it would begin keeping track of demographic information and make said data available to the public, as reported by the New York Daily News.

“The NYPD promised to be transparent about what groups have been targeted under its DNA collection program, but it continues to keep the public in the dark,” said Phil Desgranges, a supervising attorney with The Legal Aid Society.

“We can only wonder what the NYPD has to hide here and whether, based on the Department’s past practices, Black and Latinx New Yorkers make up the overwhelming number of people who have had their DNA secretly collected and stored in the City’s database,” he continued. “We call on the NYPD to make this demographic information immediately available, as it promised to do three years ago.”

According to City data, the number of New Yorkers ensnared in the database has remained relatively the same since 2020, despite promises from the City to significantly reduce profiles.

Last April, Legal Aid filed a class action lawsuit challenging the illegal, secret seizure and storage of DNA material from New Yorkers – including children – whom the police suspected of committing a crime without obtaining a warrant or court order. This lawsuit is currently pending.