45 Organizations to Mamdani: Prohibit NYPD Purchase & Use of AI-enhanced Cell-Site Simulators
Dear Mayor Mamdani,
The undersigned 45 organizations write to express our strong opposition to the NYPD’s plans to procure portable cell-site simulators with artificial intelligence capabilities. Since December 2025, the NYPD has been in negotiations to enter into a no-bid contract with the Israeli surveillance technology company Cognyte for their FalcoNet mobile cell-simulator technology. Although the City has since walked back the no-bid contract after public outcry, Cognyte and other vendors still have the ability to bid on a contract for portable AI-equipped cell-site simulators. Regardless of the vendor, another mass surveillance tool in the hands of the NYPD will not make New Yorkers safer.
We urge you to exercise your power and authority as mayor to:
Prohibit the solicitation, procurement and/or utilization of AI-enhanced portable cell-site simulators by the NYPD and any other city agency, including use of such technology purchased by a non-NYC entity (e.g. federal or state government or private entity, such as the NYC Police Foundation).
Prohibit any new or renewal contracts between any city agencies (including the NYPD) and corporate entities like Cognyte that have been linked to civil and human rights abuses.
Prohibit further solicitation, procurement and warrantless utilization of digital surveillance technologies by the NYPD and any other city agency.
Cognyte and its original parent company, Verint, have been linked to human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Sudan, and more. Their cell-site simulator technology has been used by authoritarian governments to target members of the LGBTQ+ community, monitor and surveil human rights activists and journalists, and imprison and torture political dissidents. In the United States, FalcoNet has already been used to identify and target immigrants at US borders and surveil immigrant communities, including Haitians in Florida. It is alarming that the City sought to contract with a company well-known for facilitating human rights violations, particularly because this technology would be deployed by the NYPD—an agency that has a long-documented history of misconduct and consistent disregard for the law.
Beyond Cognyte, we are deeply concerned about the expanded mass surveillance capabilities that technologies such as FalcoNet offer. Cell-site simulators operate by mimicking a cell tower and gathering data on all nearby cellular devices, which can allow law enforcement to identify individual devices and their general locations. Portable cell-site simulators can be mounted in NYPD vehicles, attached to drones, or carried in a backpack. Coupled with AI capacities, the possibilities for highly intrusive, dragnet surveillance extend even further. The technology’s behavioral analysis AI capabilities, which are entirely undisclosed, compound these privacy risks and the potential for human and civil rights violations.
The City takes on considerable risks by contracting with unaccountable and intentionally opaque surveillance technology companies. These risks pose a threat not only to New Yorkers’ safety and rights, but also expose the City to liability for resulting civil rights and privacy violations, which could negatively impact the City’s financial standing and ability to financially resource key initiatives.
The NYPD’s use of cell-site simulators, even without these new capabilities, has long been cause for concern and demanding of more rigorous oversight. Records from 2008 to 2016 show that the NYPD deployed cell-site simulators over 1,000 times, largely without a warrant. The NYPD’s long history of overbroad surveillance and misconduct demonstrate that the agency cannot be trusted to responsibly deploy such powerful and intrusive technology.
We call on you to ensure that no solicitation, procurement, new contract or warrantless utilization process moves forward for portable cell-site simulators—or other digital surveillance technologies—by the NYPD or any other NYC agency. New Yorkers do not need yet another mass surveillance tool tracking their every move.
Sincerely,
Justice Committee
Center for Constitutional Rights
Drug Policy Alliance
DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving
Jewish Voice for Peace - New York City
Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Legal Aid Society
Make the Road New York
New York Civil Liberties Union
Allan Feliz Foundation
Amadou Diallo Foundation
The Action Lab
The Arc of Justice
The Bronx Defenders
Center for Advancing Innovative Policy
The Center for Anti-Violence Education
The Distributed AI Research Institute
E.R.I.C. Initiative Foundation
Equality for Flatbush
Fight for the Future
Freedom Agenda
Gender Liberation Movement
Girls for Gender Equity
Housing Works
Immigrant Defense Project
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
Just Futures Law
Justice & Beyond
Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice
LatinoJustice PRLDEF
Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
MediaJustice
Mijente
MomsRising
Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
New York Communities for Change
NYC Democratic Socialists of America
NYU Peace Research and Education Program, Innovation Pillar
Our Bronx
SALAM
SURJ NYC
Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
Transgender Law Center
Upturn
We Build the Block
cc:
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch
NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
NYC Comptroller Mark Levine
NYC Department of Investigation Commissioner Nadia Shihata
Chair and Commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights Christine Clarke
NYC Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus
NYC Council Progressive Caucus
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