Planet Money · Friday, October 23, 2026
Former New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer explains how a 2007 memorandum of understanding allowed the NYPD to classify technology purchases as special expenses to keep them hidden from the public. Stringer officially ended this agreement in 2020 following public protests.
“So they would come in, they would brief us about what they wanted to do, and the old agreement was like, 'Okay, wink wink, nod nod. Security. We understand.'”
“I decided at that point we need to disclose all of this. Now, Stringer says that unless the NYPD can make an urgent and specific argument for why something should remain secret, when the police propose adopting a new technology, they have to tell”