The Marshall Project: Your Arrest Was Dismissed. But It’s Still In A Police Database

“The lawsuit, which in the coming weeks may be ruled a class-action on behalf of potentially tens of thousands of New Yorkers, comes just as a nonprofit research organization releases a 50-state report revealing that in 25 states, police are allowed to access sealed or expunged arrests—and then profile you based on these past allegations that no judge or jury ever found you guilty of.

“It’s not just Facebook and Google that have big data, it’s also police departments around the country using it to train the spotlight of their suspicion,” said Jenn Rolnick Borchetta, the lead attorney on the Bronx lawsuit. “But they’re running their algorithms and their facial-recognition software on arrest records and mugshots that were supposed to have been destroyed.”

Borchetta said the lawsuit is the first of its kind nationally and that she hopes it will inspire copycat suits in other states.”

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