Five Unanswered Questions About Eric Adams’s Expanded Surveillance at NYC Public Housing

The video surveillance component of the project was never publicly disclosed. New York Focus learned about it after reviewing Office of Technology and Innovation documents that laid out the agency’s intention to link the housing authority’s cameras to the NYPD three years ago. Only recently did the NYPD confirm to New York Focus that the program is being used to implement real-time, remotely viewable video surveillance at at least 20 NYCHA developments.

There’s still a lot that the Adams administration hasn’t told us. Here’s what we still don’t know about Big Apple Connect.

1) Whether the housing authority knew how the NYPD was using its cameras.

NYCHA initially told New York Focus that Big Apple Connect “is not intended to support NYCHA’s CCTV cameras.” When that turned out not to be true, New York Focus asked NYCHA multiple times whether the housing authority was aware OTI was linking its video cameras to the NYPD’s central surveillance hub through Big Apple Connect.

A NYCHA spokesperson declined to comment and told New York Focus instead to “reach out to OTI, NYPD and City Hall with questions about if and how this program is being utilized beyond internet service for NYCHA residents.”

New York Focus asked the NYPD whether the department had coordinated with NYCHA on the implementation of the video surveillance component of Big Apple Connect. The spokesperson told New York Focus: “I’m not aware of the conversations that have been happening, broadly speaking, between NYCHA and PD.” City Hall did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

2) Where exactly the NYPD is expanding surveillance.

The NYPD told New York Focus that it has networked CCTV cameras at one NYCHA development so far and will network 20 sites by the end of this year. The agency declined to say which developments are included. “That’s typically information we don’t share,” a spokesperson said.

3) What the plans for the program are going forward.

Big Apple Connect is currently deployed in more than 200 NYCHA developments. The NYPD spokesperson declined to say whether cameras at more of those sites will be networked after this year.

“It is my understanding that, as of now, the focus is on doing this work for the 20,” he said.

4) Why the agencies’ stories changed.

Over the course of multiple interviews and email exchanges with NYCHA, OTI, and the NYPD, the agencies’ narratives about the video surveillance component of Big Apple Connect changed rapidly.

• June 23: A NYCHA spokesperson said that Big Apple Connect “provides free home internet to NYCHA residents at eligible developments” and “is not intended to support NYCHA’s CCTV cameras.”

• July 7: An OTI spokesperson said that through Big Apple Connect, the agency was “providing free high-speed internet access to 330,000 New Yorkers and more efficiently using existing top-notch security infrastructure to enhance safety in public housing.” The spokesperson added that “importantly, these are not live camera feeds that the NYPD has access to.” In the same email, the spokesperson used the phrase “Big Apple Connect cameras” to describe the security infrastructure.

• July 10: The OTI spokesperson reversed course, writing: “The mention of Big Apple Connect cameras was an inadvertent mistake on my part. There’s no Big Apple Connect cameras.”

• July 18: An NYPD spokesperson said that “these are existing NYCHA CCTV cameras, that is the kinds of cameras that we have access to,” and that “there’s modems that we now have access to, which we physically go to NYCHA to go and look at the camera footage.”

• July 23: The NYPD spokesperson said that Big Apple Connect “does allow for real time access,” and “instead of physically needing to go and watch the CCTV footage, we can now remotely access it.”

• August 7: The NYPD spokesperson said that “right now the focus is on 20 NYCHA developments,” which, he said, “does not mean that we are live at 20 NYCHA developments.” Later that day, the spokesperson wrote that cameras at only one development had been linked to the NYPD’s surveillance hub so far — on August 6, the previous day.