BUFFALO, N.Y. — As 2 On Your Side reported on Thursday, the Buffalo Police Department is seeking the approval of a contract by the Common Council with a company called Dataminr.
"It is an AI-powered company that scours over 1 million public data sources, open source data, so it looks at social media, web, dark web, you name it," Gramaglia said. "It's a way to leverage AI to get that information faster. It's all about technology and speed."
Dataminr's technology funnels raw data and content into its system from its data points and then distributes information to its costumers.
The department wants to use the company's "First Alert" platform, which is described as "breaking news alerts [that] enable first responders to have the fastest real-time response."
Dataminr's website cites several examples of its software notifying first responders and emergency managers of critical incidents within minutes of them occurring, such as the Surfside, Florida condominium collapse in 2021.
What problem is this service solving for the Buffalo Police?
"We are in the business of preventing crime, if we can't prevent crime, we're in the business of solving crime," Commissioner Gramaglia said. "This can help with both."
Commissioner Gramaglia cites a hypothetical scenario of someone posting about a shooting, or actually livestreaming on their way to a shooting when describing the platform.
"If that information can get to us fast enough, get it to our officers, get out and hopefully get that person either before they get to the location," Gramaglia said.
Dataminr offers its service to a variety of government and non-government entities. According to its website, Dataminr offers its solutions to newsrooms, Fortune 50 Companies. The United Nations, New York Police Department, and New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services use version of the Dataminr platform.
While corporations and government agencies find the Dataminr useful, there have been instances of alleged abuse of the platform, and ones that have similar functionality.
The Brennan Center for Justice highlighted instances where the Washington D.C. police used Dataminr, and other tools, to monitor Black Lives Matter protests, and Trumps first inauguration.
There have been concerns by First Amendment advocates that Dataminr's tools infringe on constitutional rights of those who use social media.
The Brennan Center and ACLU have called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Meta and X as it relates to their data sharing with Dataminr and other companies.
Commissioner Gramaglia says he understands privacy and first amendment concerns.
"We're not big brother in the fact that we're trying to get into your inner workings and get what is password protected," Gramaglia said. "We would need subpoenas for things of that nature."
The commissioner reiterated that the tool only gathers data from data sources that are open to public viewing.
"It does not get into your locked accounts," Gramaglia said. "But the moment you publicly post something, it's out in the public sphere."
The four licenses that the BPD wants to purchase will cost more than $86,000, but the contract is fully funded by a NYS Technology Grant. This continues a trend under Gramaglia's tenure as commissioner, implementing new high-tech tools for the department.
"We've been doing this high tech push for several years, but things come at a cost," Gramaglia said. "All of this makes our officers, our detectives, much more efficient. They can process a lot more information a lot quicker, not have to wear out as much shoe leather and doing their jobs."