BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Common Council Finance Committee quickly approved a contract by the Buffalo Police and the tech firm Dataminr on Tuesday.
The two-year, $82,800 contract is being paid for by a NYS Dept. of Criminal Justice Services technology grant.
Initially, University District Councilmember Rasheed N.C. Wyatt asked for the item to be sent to the finance committee so there could be a broader debate.
However, that debate never happened, and no one from the public appeared to express any concerns about the use of the platform by the Buffalo Police.
'I thought, maybe people will come out, but the fact that no one's come out, I'm okay because we gave them an opportunity to come and vent if they had a concern about this process," Wyatt said. "So I'm okay with [it] being approved."
Dataminr allows customers to obtain raw data from hundreds of thousands of public data points, including social media. Privacy advocates along with the ACLU and NYCLU have expressed concerns that police departments have used or could use the software to target people exercising their first amendment right.
However, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia rebuffed those concerns, saying that the department wants to use the tool to prevent crime.
"We can't just simply look at raw data comes in and believe what's out there, that's where the investigation begins," Gramaglia said. "However, if raw data comes in that shows that a crime is about to occur, we can deploy resources, hopefully get there in time to prevent that."
Gramaglia said that Dataminr funnels raw data from public sources, and while he respects the opinions of those with privacy concerns, the department isn't looking to look at anything that isn't already public.
"The moment you publicly post something, it's out in the public sphere," Gramaglia said. "We're not big brother in the fact that we're trying to get into what is password protected, we would need subpoenas for things of that nature."
The full council is expected to vote on the contract at its meeting next week.