Police Contracts Under the Lens: A New Look at NYPD and ICE Ties

The mayor’s office has begun a fresh review of the New York Police Department, focusing not only on how the force handles immigration enforcement but also on its business partners. A key target is Vigilant, a California‑based company that supplies license‑plate‑reading technology used by police across the country. Since 2014, the NYPD has spent more than $2 million on Vigilant’s systems, raising questions about how data from these tools might be shared with federal agencies. The audit, sent to the department in early April, asks for all rules that govern whether and how U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials can access the NYPD’s real‑time plate data. The request notes that Vigilant also works with ICE, a fact highlighted in an ACLU report from 2019. That study claimed that ICE had accessed a national database containing billions of plate records, and that many police departments had agreed to share information with the agency in ways that could violate local privacy laws.NYPD officials have said they do not hand over plate data to ICE, and the department does not participate in immigration enforcement. They point out that they use Vigilant’s database to investigate crimes, but they do not feed their own data into the national system that ICE can pull from. The department’s spokesperson also said a city investigation found that, with few exceptions, the NYPD follows sanctuary policies. The mayor’s audit also touches on how police should respond when ICE asks for backup. This came to light after a chaotic incident at a Brooklyn hospital last week, where ICE agents brought in a detainee and police had to separate protesters. Local politicians demanded clearer rules, insisting that New York is a sanctuary city and that police should not coordinate with ICE at all. The audit request was drafted by Bitta Mostofi, a senior immigration adviser in the mayor’s office. It is part of a broader effort that also covers departments of correction, probation, social services, health and children’s services. The NYPD has been asked to submit a draft response by April 20, with the final audit expected by May 7. Whether the completed reports will be made public remains unclear.