In 2007 , as it pushed to build a state - of - the - art surveillance facility , the Los Angeles Police Department cast an acquisitive eye on software system being developed by Palantir , a startup funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency ’s venture capital arm .
earlier design for undercover agent representation , Palantir ’s engineering science allowed users to track individuals with unprecedented reach , plug into information from conventional sources like crime report with more controversial data gathered by surveillance photographic camera and license plate reader that automatically , and indiscriminately , photographed legislate motorcar .
The LAPD could have used a small dowry of its multibillion - dollar mark yearly budget to purchase the software program , but that would have mean going through a year - long mental process requiring public meetings , approval from the City Council , and , in some cases , competitive bidding .
There was a quicker , quieter way of life to get the software : as a giving from the Los Angeles Police Foundation , a private charity . In November 2007 , at the behest of then Police Chief William Bratton , the foundation approach Target Corp. , which contributed $ 200,000 to buy the software , said the base ’s executive director , Cecilia Glassman , in an interview . Then the instauration donated it to the police section .
Across the nation , private foundations are progressively being beg to provide police with technology and weaponry that — were it purchased with public money — would get under far close scrutiny .
In Los Angeles , foundation money has been used to corrupt hundreds of G of dollars ’ worth oflicense plate readers , which were the subject of a civil - rights lawsuit filed against the neighborhood ’s police enforcement way by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation . ( A jurist decline the group ’ claim earlier this year . )
Private funds also have been used toupgrade “ Stingray ” devices , which have triggered argumentation in legion jurisdictions because they vacuum-clean up record of cellphone metadata , yell , schoolbook messages and data transfer over a half - statute mile spoke .
New York and Los Angeles have the nation ’s sure-enough and most generous police force foot , each render their urban center law department with grant totaling about $ 3 million a twelvemonth . But standardised groups have sprouted up in 12 of jurisdictions , from Atlanta , Georgia , to Oakland , California . In Atlanta , the law creation has bankrolled the surveillance television camera that nowblanket the city , as well as the center where police officers monitor live video feed .
advocator of these secret fundraising efforts say they have become indispensable in an era of tightening budgets , facilitate police to acquire the ever - more sophisticated tool needed to battle modern crime .
“ There ’s very little discretional money for the department , ” enounce Steve Soboroff , a man of affairs who is president of the Los Angeles Police Commission , the civilian plank that superintend the LAPD ’s policies and surgical operation . “ A grant software to the foundation cut all the red tape , or almost all of the red magnetic tape . ”
But critics say police foundations operate with picayune transparency or oversight and can be a style for wealthy donors and corporations to tempt jurisprudence enforcement agencies ’ priority .
It ’s not uncommon for the same companies to be conferrer to the same police foundation that buy their products for local law departments . Or for those company also to be contractor for the same police agencies to which their ware are being donated .
“ No one really knows what ’s going on , ” said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union , a good political science group in New York . “ The public needs to know that these contributions are being made voluntarily and have no carriage on contracting decisions . ”
Palantir officials did not respond to interrogative about its family relationship with police department and the foundation garment linked to them . The New York City Police Foundation did not answer questions about Palantir ’s donation , or its engineering gifts to the NYPD .
Donna Lieberman , executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union , said she discover danger in the growing entanglement of draw between police department , foundations and private presenter .
“ We launch the peril of policy that is in the service of wealthy interests , ” she say .
The nation ’s first police basis was lay down in New York City in 1971 by the Association for a Better New York , a individual chemical group headed by real estate magnate Lewis Rudin .
In the tardy 1970s , when red crime soared and the city ’s finance were shaky , the foundation paid for bulletproof vests , which were pass around via a raffle . “ It shift the administration into believing bulletproof vest are necessary equipment for the job , ” a former New York cop said .
Altogether , the New York City Police Foundation has distributed more than $ 120 million in grants since it was set up and has spurred a host of imitators .
One was the Los Angeles Police Foundation , which was founded in 1998 by then Police Chief Bernard Parks .
Its first small-scale missionary station was to pay to outfit police units with medical kits to treat gunfire wounds . “ There were incidents with officeholder injured and paramedics were catch there too late , ” read Parks , who is now a metropolis councilman .
Over its lifespan , the foot has provided the LAPD with grant totaling more than $ 20 million , much of it to take uncontroversial item such as bicycles and police dogs .
In New York and Los Angeles , it has long been lawful that top police force officials have exercised considerable ascendancy over the employment of foundation money .
Glassman say that the chief of police ’s part deals directly with the Los Angeles foundation , identifying which production and services the section wants and who the vendor should be . At Bratton ’s direction , secret donations bear for a team of consultants to formulate a plan to regroup the LAPD .
harmonise to printing press written report , Ray Kelly , New York ’s police force commissioner for a abbreviated stint in the early ’ 90s and from 2002 to 2013 , held similar sway with the New York City institution . At his behest , origination fund even paid for Kelly’smembershipat the Harvard Club , an NYPD spokesman confirm .
More recently , though , the New York and Los Angeles instauration have wrick to funding technology initiatives , many of them involving surveillance systems .
An audited account include with the New York foundation’s2013 annual revenue enhancement filingsaid almost half of the $ 6.5 million distribute by the group that year proceed to what it scream the police section ’s “ technology campaign . ”
The foundation was dedicate $ 4.6 million by JPMorgan Chase to buy 1,000 laptop and protection monitoring software program for the constabulary section ’s main data center , fit in to the foundation ’s tax corroboration and mechanical press releases from JP Morgan .
Records for the Los Angeles fundament are more specific , showingoutlays of almost $ 250,000 in 2010 for tracking equipment for the police department ’s riposte - terrorism investigators and$460,000 in 2011on surveillance cameras and license plate readers .
According to its 2012 revenue enhancement filing , the foundation gavealmost $ 25,000 to upgrade “ Stingray ” devicesplaced in sideslip row to supervise drug transactions .
Police booster say there ’s no need for public debate over these types of acquisitions .
“ I think we all see ourselves as part of a larger puzzle , which is making certain that Los Angeles has a world class police department , and we ’re just the private funding rootage , ” said Glassman of the Police Foundation . “ The commission is an oversight board and the section is here to protect and dish up . ”
But Peter Bibring of the ACLU of Southern California said that when police adopt new surveillance tools it can reshape their plan of attack to policing – transformation that , when enabled by individual money , are pass off outside public prospect .
“ These technologies are adopt without any sort of public treatment , without clear policy on how they should be used , ” he tell .
As individual charities , police force basis are subject to reporting rules set by the tax code rather than the public information constabulary that apply to law enforcement federal agency . In many case , foundations give few inside information about where their money comes from and even fewer about what it ’s used to corrupt .
The New York City Police Foundation lists contributor who give $ 1,000 or more on its website , separating them into donor ( $ 1,000-$5,000 ) , benefactors ( $ 5,000-$10,000 ) , bronze ( $ 10,000-$25,000 ) , atomic number 47 ( $ 25,000-$50,000 ) , Au ( $ 50,000-$100,000 ) and Pt ( $ 100,000 or more ) .
The group volunteer no specifics at all on what its grants are used for , however . The law department ’s one-year budget lumps them all into a undivided line item labeled “ non - city funds . ”
Despite the minimum amount of disclosure , it ’s unmortgaged that several companies are both vender and donor to the New York foundation . Some also sustain big contract to supply commodity and table service to the police force department .
The NYPD ’s citywide surveillance hub use software program from IBM , which gave between $ 10,000 and 25,000 to the foundation . allot to its website and tax document , the foundation helped fund creation of the hub . IBM did not respond when asked about its relationship with New York ’s police foundation and police section .
DynTek Inc. made a donation of similar sizing to the foundation and has won more than $ 47 million in engineering contract with New York City since 2008 . It lobbied the constabulary department for more business concern as recently as this January , according to disclosure records . DynTek officials also did not reply to dubiousness .
The New York Police Foundation ’s bylaw say it reviews likely conflict of pursuit involve donors , but fundament officials did not react to inquiry about this process .
It appear that no one else is watch out for these overlapping relationships : New York ’s Comptroller and Conflict of Interest Board , which oversee procurement and conflicts of interestingness for the metropolis , say they do n’t track the police foundation ’s donation to the constabulary section .
Los Angeles has put more tribute in position – - at least on paper . grant to the city ’s Administrative Code , the Police Commission must approve all foundation garment gift to the police department . Donations with a time value of more than $ 10,000 also must be approved by the City Council and its Public Safety Committee .
come with each contribution is a signed assurance from LAPD stave that posit , “ all potential conflicts of interest have been research , and this contribution does not ponder negatively on the Department or City in general . ”
In practice , though , the police force committal puts donations from the base on its consent agendum , which typically passes with no give-and-take . In December 2013 , for example , the commission approved agift of 50 stun gunsfrom TASER International Inc. , valued at more than $ 48,000 , in less than five seconds , TV archives show . The donate models are an experimental product that LAPD military officer are field testing for the company , according to city records . The City Council ’s Public Safety Committee and , later , the full council , also approved the contribution with no argumentation .
In some cases , foundations gifts may not be getting even this level of scrutiny . There ’s no indication in track record that the City Council ever vote on or approved the 2007 contribution of the Palantir software .
A recent kerfuffle regard LAPD Officer Brandi Pearson , the daughter of Police Chief Charlie Beck , demonstrated the holes in vetting process for police foundation gifts . In March , the grounding paid $ 6,000 to buy a horse from Pearson , then donated it to the constabulary department ’s mounted unit . Beck himself signed off on the institution ’s leverage , but neither he nor foundation functionary inform the Police Commission about the arrangement . Details of the sawhorse ’s purchaseonly emerged this Augustwhen the Los Angeles Times got hold of the story .
Ana Muniz , a former investigator with the Inglewood - ground Youth Justice Coalition who has studied the LAPD ’s ring policing feat , called the porous system of rules for monitor foundation donations unsettling .
“ At least with public contract and spending , there ’s a facade of transparence and accountability , ” Muniz said . “ With individual partnerships , with secret technology , there ’s nothing . ”
Parks pronounce that the Los Angeles foundation was supposed to avoid accept donations from companies if they were bidding on contracts for the law section , but receipt there are no dominion exclude this .
As Motorola and Raytheon vie for a $ 600 million declaration to provide the regional exigency communications organisation used by the LAPD , each company made generous donations to the law foundation .
Motorola gave more than $ 164,000 through a foundation controlled by caller executive in 2010 and 2011 . It also appointed Bratton , who get out the LAPD in October 2009 , to itsboard of directorsin December 2010 , a post that paid $ 240,000 a twelvemonth .
“ As part of our commitment to public safety , the Motorola Solutions Foundation , Motorola Solutions ’ philanthropic arm , support public safety nonprofits that provide education for officer and prophylactic breeding for the worldwide populace , as well as memorial to abide by the service and sacrifice of fallen officeholder , and to help fund scholarships for their families , ” say Tama McWinney , a Motorola spokesperson , in a write response to questions about why the company had donate to the law foundation .
Raytheon countered by donate $ 311,000 in equipment to the law foundation to raise the LAPD ’s live radiocommunication system . “ Our community meshing include strategic partnership , individual empowerment program , employee volunteer efforts and regional projects that are aligned with support of first responder , education initiatives and our warfighters , ” Michael Doble , Raytheon ’s director of public relative , say in a program line .
Motorola end up get ahead the contract .
Soboroff said he had no worry that company were donate to the foundation to improve their chances to do business with the metropolis — donors were typically driven by “ an insatiable appetency to help , ” he say , not self - interest .
At a recent fundraiser host by a wealthy family , member of the constabulary department ’s canine , equestrian and SWAT building block helped raise $ 180,000 to bribe dogs , sawbuck and equipment .
“ All they need to do is see a carte du jour of what we need and they ’re willing to recreate , ” Soboroff said .
Parks , however , said corporate donor should be picture with a more skeptical eye and that , in his purview , it taints the contracting process when companies are allowed to make talent to the same police agencies from which they are seeking work .
“ If you are select money from Motorola and all of a sudden Motorola is providing you with your radios , those are major concern , ” he said . “ You should shy out from those relationships . ”
Ultimately , Parks stay a supporter of police foundations and say Los Angeles ’ group has render critical backup to the city ’s constabulary . But he has come to believe these chemical group need more material oversight than they are let .
“ You have to be persevering to look at what people are purchasing , ” he said . “ You do n’t want to say , when did we purchase 50 drones ? ”
mental image viaFlickr
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