Chinese Surveillance Technology and the NYPD

According to an article published in the South China Morning Post, the NYPD is using surveillance tools identical to those used in Sky Net in China. The world’s largest surveillance technology company, Hikvision, is based in China and state-owned and is not supplying equipment and software to the NYPD.

The software from Hikvision allows officers to view footage remotely and observe New Yorkers without their knowledge. The NYPD already has facial recognition cameras set up throughout the city. The Hikvision website states that thousands of Sky Net cameras, coupled with artificial intelligence software, have monitored River Park in New York City since 2014.

Due to a lack of transparency, the extent of the NYPD’s use of facial recognition and AI is unknown, but according to the South China Morning Post, Chinese authorities claim Hikvision products are being used by the NYPD on a “large scale”.