NYPD Remaining Quiet On Use Of X-Ray Surveillance Vans

New York police commissioner Bill Bratton is remaining quiet amid questions surrounding the use of x-ray vans by the New York Police Department.

The technology, also utilized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to detect drugs and explosives, have some concerned about their privacy rights. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Bratton insisted,

“They’re not used to scan people for weapons. The devices we have, the vehicles if you will, are all used lawfully and if the ACLU and others don’t think that’s the case, we’ll see them in court — where they’ll lose! At this time and the nature of what’s going on in the world, that concern of theirs is unfounded.“

Bratton continued, “I will not talk about anything at all about this — it falls into the range of security and counter-terrorism activity that we engage in.”

When ProPublica, a New York based news outfit that bills itself as “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest” sued the NYPD three years ago for failing to release information on the health, training materials, and police reports after it was requested of them by a journalist, New York State Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan ruled,

“While this court is cognizant and sensitive to concerns about terrorism, being located less than a mile from the 9/11 site, and having seen firsthand the effects of terrorist destruction, nonetheless, the hallmark of our great nation is that it is a democracy, with a transparent government.“

New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) Executive Director Donna Lieberman also weighed in on the issue after the NYCLU requested to file an amicus brief to prevent the NYPD from appealing the decision, saying,

“People should be informed if military grade x-ray vans are damaging their health with radiation or peering inside their homes or cars. New Yorkers have a right to protect their health, welfare and privacy.“

The NYCLU also said in a news release on its website,

“The military-grade surveillance equipment, which utilizes x-ray radiation to image the inside of cars and buildings, is used to search for roadside bombs in Afghanistan. The NYPD has largely refused to disclose anything about how it uses x-ray vans on the streets of New York […] The x-ray vans are one in a number of surveillance technologies, including Stingrays, imported from the battlefield to New York’s neighborhoods. These technologies make mass surveillance significantly easier for the police while the public remains in the dark about how they are used.“

The vans, known as Z Backscatter vehicles, cost anywhere from $729,000 to $825,000. The public has relatively little knowledge of what the x-ray technology is used for.

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