Gina Mitchell (Brooklyn Defender Services) testifies on surveillance and low-level arrests

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Gina Mitchell, and I'm the attorney in charge of law reform and policy at Brooklyn Defender Services.

Firstly, thank you to the Committee on Public Safety and to you, Chair Feliz, for inviting us to testify today.

As we've heard many times this afternoon, over the past year, New York City has experienced decreasing rates of crime due in large part to investments in community resources and services.

We know that strong resource communities are best able to address the root causes of inequality, conflict and violence which drive much of the crime in our city.

Reliance on policing, surveillance and incarceration only creates a revolving door into the criminal legal system, further destabilising communities.

One demonstrated success of these investments in the city is the city's crisis management system.

We have witnessed the power of credible messengers to build rapport, meet people where they are at, and help them to avoid further contact with the police and the legal system.

While crime rates have decreased, we're concerned by overemphasis on the role of NYPD and any implicit validation of NYPD's racially biased

and unconstitutional practices.

NYPD continues to engage in stop and frisk abuses, utilizing a web of special response teams, task forces, and surveillance technology to justify a return to broken windows policing.

The NYPD has spent more than $1 billion in military-grade surveillance resources, primarily in low-income communities of colour.

This technology infringes on New Yorkers'dignity, privacy and First Amendment freedoms, while providing technical justification for disproportionate NYPD deployment to black and Latin neighbourhoods.

Transparency in the NYPD's use of surveillance technology is necessary for the City to have meaningful oversight of the Department's use of this technical justification for broken windows policing.

In our written testimony, we have highlighted a number of recommendations to continue to work towards community safety, but in my limited time, I will highlight just a few.

The City should invest in interventions that have proven effective in reducing violence, including cure violence and community-based programming.

The Council continues to prioritise public health responses that support, not criminalise, people living with mental health concerns, people who use drugs and those experiencing food or housing insecurity,

building upon the progress of the

aggressive caucuses crisis to care initiative.

Additionally, the council should investigate NYPD's misuse of custodial arrests for low-level charges, including quality of life policing.

This practice contributes to people with medical conditions and mental health issues entering precincts and jails in which the NYPD is not equipped to provide needed medical attention,

and at least five New Yorkers have died in NYPD custody in 2026.

And I'll just end with this final point that NYPD routinely violates criminal procedure law section 15020,

which requires them, with limited exceptions, to issue appearance tickets in lieu of arresting individuals charged with violations, infractions, misdemeanors, and certain class E felonies.

And we did hear some discussion at length about the issuing of, or the arrest of people on the trains taking up two seats.

And as a public defender, I can tell you I've seen many of those cases coming through.

Thank you for your time, and I do welcome any questions.