Despite large tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, and Amazon making public claims of “solidarity” with communities of color, companies of all sizes benefit from and profit off of policing and surveilling these same communities through contracts with police departments and other law enforcement agencies. These technologies increase police violence and detainment and aid and abet state sanctioned violence, disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities. Some examples of this technology include predictive policing, facial recognition technology, prison recidivism models, and cloud storage for large-scale surveillance databases. To this, we say #NoCodeforCops.
We applaud the Boston City Council’s unanimous vote to defund facial recognition technology, joining with city councils across the country, but this step is not enough. We support the Muslim Justice League's call to get the BRIC Fustion Center out of Boston, and other calls to remove surveillance technology from police usage.