The NYPD is gaining live access to CCTV footage in public housing, without having to ask NYCHA for permission. | Photos: Phonlamai Photo/Getty Images; Johnramos1978/Wikimedia Commons; Badge: Wikimedia Commons | Illustration: Leor Stylar
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s administration is quietly using a flagship free internet program for public housing residents for another purpose: expanding NYPD surveillance.
The New York City Police Department is working to use network connections established under the three-year-old Big Apple Connect program to link cameras at New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments directly to the NYPD’s central digital surveillance system, a police department spokesperson confirmed to New York Focus. Cameras at one development were linked last Wednesday, the spokesperson said, and 19 more are set to follow…