The Legal Aid Society is calling for an investigation into the New York Police Department’s violations of its facial recognition technology policies.

Legal Aid has detailed multiple alarming cases in which the NYPD appears to have disregarded its own policies by using its Intelligence Division to evade transparency and using other City agencies to search databases that the NYPD is barred from using.

The New York Times recently profiled Trevis Williams, who was wrongfully arrested based on a false facial recognition match, highlighting the racial bias embedded in the technology and the opaque systems that shield its use from public scrutiny.

Legal Aid is also suing the FDNY to obtain records related to their use of Clearview AI in cooperation with the NYPD to identify an activist using a picture taken while he was engaged in protected First Amendment activity.

“The NYPD worked with the FDNY to use unregulated facial recognition software to identify and prosecute a protester — without oversight, without authorization, and in direct violation of established NYPD policy,” said Shane Ferro, an attorney with Legal Aid’s Digital Forensics Unit.

“Everyone, including the NYPD, knows that facial recognition technology is unreliable,” added Diane Akerman, an attorney with Legal Aid’s Digital Forensics Unit. “Yet the NYPD disregards even its own protocols, which are meant to protect New Yorkers from the very real risk of false arrest and imprisonment.”

“It’s clear they cannot be trusted with this technology,” she continued. “Elected officials must act now to ban its use by law enforcement.”