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In fall of 2020, the Digital Forensics Unit (DFU) submitted Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests for NYPD Special Expense (SPEX) purchase contracts and procurement materials. Five years and two court rulings later, the NYPD has slowly started to produce responsive records. This webpage serves as a repository for the documents that have been produced so far, and it will be updated as we continue to receive documents from the NYPD.
The NYPD released its first production of records on August 5, 2025. The production is 470 pages and includes records pertaining to the Harris Corporation, ComnetiX, DataWorks Plus, and MorphoTrak. The production contains redactions that we believe are unjustified. We have flagged the unjustified redactions for the NYPD and are awaiting their response.
You can download the first production here.
The SPEX budget was a secret fund that the NYPD used to buy surveillance tools, such as facial recognition technology, predictive policing software, and cell site simulators. Through an agreement with the Law Department, Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, the Department of Investigation, the Office of Management and Budget, and the City Comptroller’s Office, the NYPD was able to shield its transactions with surveillance companies from public disclosure—even going so far as to store the contracts only on paper.
In 2020, the New York City Council passed the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act, which requires the NYPD to disclose certain information about its surveillance technologies. After the POST Act was enacted, the Comptroller’s Office then withdrew from the SPEX program agreement. These developments were crucial steps towards future transparency. But the public still did not have access to the thousands of SPEX contracts that had been concealed for so long.
As the City Council recognized when it passed the POST Act, the NYPD’s acquisition and use of novel and invasive surveillance technologies is a matter of public concern. The public has a right to know how its government is using its resources—especially when it comes to acquiring intrusive surveillance tools that monitor individuals going about their daily lives. In response, DFU submitted FOIL requests to the NYPD, the Mayor’s Office, the City Comptroller, and the Department of Investigation to obtain the SPEX contracts and release them to the public.
The City Comptroller’s Office produced thousands of pages of records in response to DFU’s FOIL request (as well as a FOIL request by the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.)). However, many of the pages were heavily redacted, because the SPEX program did not permit the Comptroller to retain unredacted copies of SPEX records. Even information like companies with whom the NYPD contracted was redacted. The Department of Investigation provided 150 pages of records, but they were all responses to requests for Vendor Name Checks, i.e., letters indicating whether a particular entity had been the subject of an investigation by the Department of Investigation. These records do not provide the public with adequate insight into the surveillance landscape that NYPD was building for over a decade.
That’s why DFU has been litigating with the NYPD for over four years. The NYPD has roughly 165,000 pages of records related to the SPEX program. The public has a right to see them.
The Mayor’s Office still has not responded to DFU’s 2020 FOIL request.
March, 2007 The NYPD, the Office of the New York City Comptroller, the NYC Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, the NYC Department of Investigation, and the NYC Office of Management and Budget enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to procure surveillance technologies through contracts outside of the City’s standard process. These contracts are labeled as Special Expense (“SPEX”) purchase contracts and shielded from public view.
June 18, 2010 The NYPD, Mayor’s Office of Contract Services, and the City Comptroller sign an Amendment to Special Expense Protocol, modifying the original 2007 MOU.
June 18, 2020 The New York City Council passes the Public Oversight of Surveillance Technologies (POST) Act by a vote of 44 to 6. The Act requires the NYPD to disclose certain information about its acquisition and use of surveillance technologies.
July 15, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio signs the POST Act into law.
July 30, 2020 The New York City Comptroller notifies the NYPD of its intent to terminate the SPEX program, noting that the POST Act will moot a significant amount of the secrecy that the NYPD has insisted on.
October-November, 2020 DFU submits FOIL requests to the NYPD, the Mayor’s Office, the City Comptroller, and the Department of Investigation for documents relating to the SPEX purchase contracts from March 27, 2008 to October 28, 2020.
March 16, 2021 The NYPD issues a blanket denial of the DFU’s FOIL request, claiming the request failed to describe the records in a manner that could enable a search.
April 5, 2021 DFU appeals the NYPD’s denial, noting that the FOIL request identified several possible responsive documents—which had been specified in the 2007 MOU. The same documents were also identified in the 2010 amendment to the MOU.
April 5, 2021 The NYPD denies DFU’s appeal, stating again that the request did not “reasonably describe a record in a manner that could enable a search” and that the request does not “reasonably describe any actual records maintained by this agency in that it is overbroad and this agency does not maintain records in a manner in which responsive records can be located.” The NYPD claims that, because it does not maintain a searchable database of SPEX contracts and the request would require a manual review of hard-copy records, fulfilling the request would be “unduly burdensome.”
May 24, 2021 The Comptroller’s Office responds to DFU’s FOIL request with its first batch of responsive records. Rolling productions continue through April 27, 2022. These records are available here. They are heavily redacted, as the Comptroller’s Office was not permitted to retain unredacted contracts under the SPEX program.
May 25, 2021 The Department of Investigation responds to DFU’s FOIL request with 150 pages of records. These records are available here.
July 27, 2021 DFU files an Article 78 Petition explaining how the NYPD’s denial of its request violated FOIL. Under the plain text of FOIL, an agency “shall not deny a request on the basis that the request is voluminous or that locating or reviewing the requested records or providing the requested copies is burdensome because the agency lacks sufficient staffing or on any other basis if the agency may engage an outside professional service to provide copying, programming or other services required to provide the copy, the costs of which the agency may recover pursuant to paragraph (c) of subdivision one of section eighty-seven of this article.”
September 19, 2022 The NYPD moves to dismiss the Petition, arguing that the FOIL request failed to reasonably describe the documents sought and that the request was unduly burdensome. In its memorandum of law filed on November 29, 2022, the NYPD also argues that the Petition should be denied because the Comptroller had produced redacted copies of the records sought in the FOIL request.
January 3, 2023 DFU replies, arguing that the Petition should not be dismissed. The reply explains that the documents produced by the Comptroller are not identical to the documents in the NYPD’s possession, because the Comptroller possessed only documents that had been pre-redacted by the NYPD, and the Comptroller did not have copies of all of the documents related to each SPEX contract.
July 10, 2023 The parties appear for a hearing, at which NYPD Attorney Kevin Murtagh testifies that the SPEX files fill 22 filing cabinet drawers (with 7,000-8,000 pages in each).
October 26, 2023 After more than two years of litigation, the Honorable Lyle E. Frank rules that the NYPD is required to produce the requested documents. Per the court’s order, LAS is to receive the first production of records on or before March 31, 2024. But the NYPD appeals instead of producing any documents.
April 1, 2024 NYPD files its appellate brief arguing again that the records requested are voluminous and that producing the requested records would be unduly burdensome.
August 7, 2024 DFU and our pro bono partners from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP respond that the NYPD failed to establish that the requested material fits within any exemption to FOIL, and that the NYPD’s burdensome argument was both factually and legally insufficient. DFU also pointed to the NYPD’s pattern of dedicating significant resources to fighting and discouraging FOIL requesters instead of producing relevant documents.
September 13, 2024 The NYPD replies that it is unreasonably burdensome to make them review and redact 165,000 pages of records, and that the NYPD cannot outsource the work of redacting the records, because the records are too sensitive and require a deep understanding of the NYPD’s security needs—which they claim only two NYPD employees have.
October 15, 2024 The Appellate Division, First Department hears oral argument on the case.
February 6, 2025 The Appellate Division, First Department affirms the Supreme Court’s grant of DFU’s Petition, holding that the NYPD must produce the requested records. The Court notes the lack of specificity in the NYPD’s arguments about burdensomeness.
May 27, 2025 Having received neither records nor a reasonable production schedule from the NYPD, DFU requests that the Court re-calendar the case. At the Court’s prompting, the NYPD agrees to make rolling productions with status updates every 3 months, starting on August 1, 2025.
August 5, 2025 The NYPD produces 470 pages of records and indicates that the rest of the first production will follow.
This timeline will be updated as the case proceeds.