A metropolis hearth marshal used FDNY’s entry to a facial recognition database to assist NYPD detectives determine a pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia College, circumventing insurance policies that tightly prohibit the Police Division’s use of the expertise.
Particulars of the association emerged in a latest choice by a Manhattan prison court docket decide and in a lawsuit in search of data from the FDNY filed this week by the Authorized Help Society, which represented the protester, Zuhdi Ahmed, now a 21-year-old pre-med CUNY main going into his senior 12 months of faculty.
Police recognized Ahmed after trying to find a younger man accused of hurling what they mentioned was a rock at a pro-Israeli protester throughout an April 2024 skirmish at an encampment at Columbia. Because of the FDNY’s help and its use of Clearview AI software program, the police had been in a position to determine Ahmed.
The FDNY started utilizing Clearview AI in December 2022 and has an annual contract with the corporate, in keeping with a spokesperson.
The fireplace marshal additionally accessed paperwork from the Division of Motor Automobiles which can be sometimes unavailable to the police, court docket information present.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg charged Ahmed with a felony, assault within the third diploma as a hate crime, which was later lowered to a misdemeanor of second diploma aggravated harassment. A prison court docket decide in June dismissed the case and in a prolonged ruling raised crimson flags about authorities surveillance and practices that ran afoul of regulation enforcement’s personal insurance policies.
The decide dismissed the case towards Ahmed final month.
“Where the state routinely gathers, searches, seizes, and preserves colossal amounts of information, transparency must remain a touchstone, lest fairness be lost,” the decide, Valentina Morales, wrote.
Clearview AI — in extensive use by regulation enforcement businesses nationally, together with the Division of Justice — matches photographs uploaded to its system with billions of pictures in a database sourced from social media and different web sites. The NYPD has used the expertise previously however now forbids its use underneath a 2020 facial recognition coverage that limits picture searches to arrest and parole photographs.
A subsequent metropolis regulation, known as the POST Act, requires the NYPD to report publicly on its use of and insurance policies concerning surveillance applied sciences. The Metropolis Division of Investigation has discovered the NYPD has not constantly complied. Reached by THE CITY, Council members indicated they had been engaged on new laws to shut loopholes within the POST Act.
Social media photographs the FDNY used to determine Ahmed included photos at a highschool formal, a faculty play and his highschool commencement.
Ahmed, a Westchester resident who’s Palestinian and grew up going to protests together with his household, mentioned he has acquired hateful mail and on-line messages since his arrest. He mentioned he by no means thought photographs from his teenage years might be used on this approach.
“It’s something straight out of a dystopian, futuristic movie,” he mentioned. “It’s honestly kind of scary to think about what people are capable of in terms of surveillance.”
The FDNY used facial recognition expertise to assist the NYPD determine Zuhdi Ahmed, July 17, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“The NYPD keeps using these incredibly disturbing companies to spy on New Yorkers, while hiding that surveillance from the public and violating New York City law in the process,” mentioned Albert Fox Cahn, government director of the Surveillance Know-how Oversight Venture. “The FDNY is clearly being complicit in enabling these NYPD abuses.”
The NYPD referred THE CITY to FDNY for remark. An FDNY spokesperson mentioned in a press release that permitted hearth marshals have entry to Clearview AI and work intently with the NYPD to analyze crimes.
“This small group of elite law enforcement agents use facial recognition software as one of the many tools available to conduct critical fire investigations,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We always follow all local, state and federal laws.”
Shane Ferro, Digital Forensics Unit workers legal professional at Authorized Help, who had represented Ahmed, sought to be taught extra about facial recognition expertise operated by the FDNY, however requests made underneath the New York Freedom of Data Regulation, or FOIL, went nowhere. Authorized Help filed a lawsuit this week in search of to acquire the data.
The decide dismissed the case exactly due to the intense questions surrounding how Ahmed was recognized, Ferro famous.
Nonetheless unknown is whether or not the NYPD’s reliance on FDNY to bypass the police division’s Clearview ban goes past this one occasion.
“The way that the NYPD used FDNY to access broader and even more unreliable facial recognition technologies — in this case, to identify a protester — brings up questions about the NYPD following its own policies, the NYPD complying with the POST Act,” she mentioned, including that Ahmed’s saga “brings up questions about the First Amendment and the NYPD’s prohibition on using facial recognition technology to identify people at political rallies.”
‘All Good Bro…Happy to Help’
The incident on the middle of the case occurred close to an encampment at Columbia College by pro-Palestine demonstrators, who had been protesting Israel’s warfare in Gaza which killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians in response to Hamas’ assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the place 1,200 Israelis had been killed, and 240 hostages had been taken.
The Israeli army offensive has since killed greater than 55,000 Palestinians, in keeping with the Gaza Well being Ministry and devastated the strip.
Each former Columbia College President Minouche Shafik and Mayor Eric Adams confronted strain to quell the protests. On April 17, 2024, NYPD officers confirmed up on the encampment at Shafik’s request and revamped 100 arrests. College students created a second encampment, and the extremely militarized NYPD presence continued on campus till commencement. Cops subsequently used stun grenades, fired a gun inside student-occupied Hamilton Corridor and flew drones over campus.
At Columbia, pro-Israel college students typically confirmed as much as encampment occasions and demonstrations to counter-protest.
That was true on Saturday, April 20, 2024, when the encampment held a movie screening and hosted teach-ins.
Columbia pupil Jonathan Lederer arrived on campus that evening together with his twin brother. They stood with a bunch behind these gathered to observe the movies and waved Israeli flags, movies posted to social media present. Music performed loudly out of a speaker.
Later, somebody stole one of many flags and ran off, and one other individual tried to mild it on hearth. Lederer detailed his expertise in The Free Press, saying he was hit within the face with objects somebody threw. He later advised NY1 different protesters “threw rocks at my face.”
Movies posted to social media, blurry at instances, present a white object lobbed at Lederer, who seems to toss it away from him. The one that threw it flipped him the chicken.
Ahmed declined to reply questions from THE CITY about throwing an object, however mentioned he had been at Columbia to attend a jazz occasion when he’d heard chanting and walked over to the protest.
The NYPD started a seek for the one who threw the article.
On June 3, 2024, the company posted a photograph of Ahmed on its Crime Stoppers Instagram account, saying he was “WANTED for Hate Crime Assault.” The posted picture was a nonetheless from a video taken at a protest in Central Park in Could 2024.
Ahmed mentioned he has no recollection of the protest or that day, however was “completely bewildered” to see his picture on-line with accusations he mentioned had been false.
“Hey brother,” the fireplace marshal wrote. “Good speaking with you.”
He went on to say he ran the Instagram picture “through our facial.” He mentioned he couldn’t discover the suspect’s title, however maybe some photographs he was sending alongside might “help with an ID.”
The fireplace marshal wrote, “Not too sure what the scarf says but maybe related to Palestine?”
A distinct NYPD detective responded with thanks. Shortly after, the fireplace marshal despatched hyperlinks to Clearview AI face search outcomes, an archive of college play photographs and one other to an archive of highschool formal photographs. He mentioned he couldn’t discover related social media however provided to get a driver’s license picture for the detective. “We have access to that,” he wrote.
A minute later, the detective despatched the fireplace marshal Ahmed’s title, date of beginning and driver’s license quantity. Inside 5 minutes, the fireplace marshal replied, “Bingo.”
NYPD detectives can not entry DMV information with out permission from supervisors.
The NYPD took Ahmed’s driver’s license picture and included a digitally altered model of it in an identification array introduced to Lederer, who picked Ahmed’s picture from the lineup. The picture had been edited to alter the form of Ahmed’s neck.
The detective responded the following day: “Yea that’s to you, I appreciate the help.”
The FDNY used facial recognition expertise to assist the NYPD determine Zuhdi Ahmed, July 17, 2025. Credit score: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
NYPD could solely conduct facial recognition searches inside a restricted repository of arrest and parole photographs.
To conduct searches exterior that repository, officers should get permission from the chief of division, chief of detectives or the deputy commissioner of intelligence. Workers who misuse facial recognition expertise could face administrative or prison penalties, NYPD coverage states.
However on this case, FDNY’s use of Clearview’s facial recognition software program trawled the Web and yielded a whole bunch of matches.
“It should not be a guessing game, who’s using this sort of technology and who’s doing business with a vendor this controversial,” Cahn mentioned.
‘The Public Deserves to Know’
In April, the Council permitted three further payments to strengthen POST Act reporting and accountability necessities, which turned regulation with out Mayor Eric Adams’ signature.
They embody a regulation that requires monitoring intergovernmental knowledge sharing. However that solely covers data the NYPD shares with different businesses, not data businesses present to the NYPD.
Councilmember Julie Received (D-Queens), who sponsored one of many not too long ago handed payments increasing the POST Act, mentioned she and her colleagues are drafting laws to shut the loophole. The brand new invoice would prohibit metropolis businesses from utilizing surveillance applied sciences on behalf of regulation enforcement, and mandate businesses disclose their use of surveillance expertise for any cause.
“No matter what they’re using it for, the public deserves to know,” Received mentioned.
Different Council members expressed alarm over the revelation about FDNY’s use of Clearview AI.
“This is a clear loophole we didn’t necessarily anticipate,” mentioned Councilmember Crystal Hudson (D-Brooklyn).
Council Majority Chief Amanda Farías (D-The Bronx) known as the FDNY’s use of Clearview AI on behalf of NYPD “deeply concerning” and uncovered “a troubling gap in our current oversight laws.”
Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez (D-Brooklyn), chair of the expertise committee mentioned, “What happened here is a warning shot: without clear checks and oversight, city agencies are using powerful surveillance tools like facial recognition and AI with no accountability, no transparency, and no regard for due process.”
Councilmember Joann Ariola (R-Queens), who chairs the Council’s hearth committee disagreed, saying the FDNY was inside its purview as a regulation enforcement company to share data with the NYPD, however that the case “may require a deeper examination at all levels.”
As for Ahmed, he mentioned the decide dropping the case towards him introduced him “the greatest relief” of his life. He mentioned he felt just like the preliminary hate crime cost was “an exploitation of laws that are meant to protect us, protect minorities, protect any ethnic group.”
Douglas Cohen, a spokesperson for DA Bragg mentioned: “The office conducted a thorough investigation into this matter – interviewing multiple witnesses, analyzing available video surveillance and reviewing medical records. When that investigation determined we could not prove the legal elements of the top count beyond a reasonable doubt, we moved to dismiss the charge.”
Ahmed is now targeted on recovering from the emotional and psychological toll the ordeal positioned on him and his household.
In December, he earned his certification as an emergency medical technician and plans to use to medical college after faculty. He not too long ago learn a novel, ‘No Longer Human’ by Osamu Dazai, and associated the story.
“Essentially, the book is about someone that gets detached from society, and he’s basically isolated,” Ahmed mentioned. “For the past year, I was scared of all the accusations, I was scared of what society thought of me.”
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