Mamdani Administration Scrutinizing Nypd Contracts With Ice Vendor

NEW YORK — Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration is scrutinizing NYPD contracts with a surveillance technology company that’s faced criticism for doing business with federal immigration authorities, documents reviewed by POLITICO show.

The examination of the NYPD’s dealings with Vigilant Solutions is part of an ongoing audit process being conducted by Mamdani’s administration at the police department and five other city agencies.

Mamdani ordered the reviews in February with the stated goal of strengthening New York City’s sanctuary laws as President Donald Trump’s administration continues its aggressive — and at times lethal — immigration crackdowns across the U.S. The laws bar city employees and resources from being used to assist federal authorities in civil immigration matters.

The revelation that the NYPD audit is looking at a private company indicates Mamdani wants to scrutinize not just whether the department is complying with the sanctuary laws but also its vendors. In ordering the audits, Mamdani specified they may result in “changes and updates to policies and protocols,” suggesting the singling out of Vigilant could come with repercussions for its NYPD contracts.

Asked why the police department’s Vigilant connections are being scrutinized in particular, mayoral spokesperson Sam Raskin provided little clarity. “The Mamdani administration has engaged with a number of agencies on their policies, guidelines and procedures related to federal immigration enforcement,” he said Tuesday. “We will share more soon."

Vigilant, which is based in California and counts law enforcement agencies across the U.S. as clients, manufactures license plate-tracking systems and software used in surveillance efforts.

The NYPD has spent more than $2 million for Vigilant’s surveillance systems since at least 2014, according to city procurement records.

In an audit questionnaire sent to the NYPD in early April, Mamdani’s office demanded that the department fork over all protocols related to how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials may be able to “in real-time or without request” gain access to “license plate reader data collected by” the NYPD in connection with the department’s contracts with Vigilant. The five-page questionnaire, a copy of which was obtained by POLITICO, specified that Mamdani’s team is seeking that information because Vigilant also “contracts with ICE.”

The Mamdani administration’s focus on Vigilant comes after the American Civil Liberties Union released a 2019 report revealing ICE had gained access to a national database maintained by Vigilant that contains billions of license plate records.

At the time, the ACLU alleged that 80 law enforcement agencies across 20 states had agreed to share license plate information with ICE via the database. Amid concerns ICE would use the information to surveil immigrants and track their travel, the ACLU alleged that the data-sharing in some cases was done “in direct violation of local privacy laws or sanctuary policies.”

The NYPD wasn’t among the 80 law enforcement agencies flagged in the ACLU report.

In a statement Tuesday, an NYPD spokesperson said the department “does not and has never provided data to Vigilant” as part of its contracts.

“The NYPD does not conduct or participate in civil immigration enforcement,” the spokesperson said, noting that the city Department of Investigation found in a report last year that the NYPD — with a few exceptions — complies with local sanctuary laws.

The police spokesperson did confirm that the NYPD, as part of its Vigilant contracts, uses the same national database that ICE has access to as a tool to track down cars as part of investigations. But unlike other police departments, the spokesperson said the NYPD doesn’t funnel its own license plate data into the national database accessible to ICE.

Vigilant, which is the only private company referenced in the Mamdani administration’s NYPD audit questionnaire, did not return a request for comment.

With the NYPD defending its Vigilant contracts, the Mamdani administration's scrutiny of the company could exacerbate tensions between the democratic socialist mayor and Jessica Tisch, his police commissioner. Tisch, an ideologically more moderate Democrat than her boss, has clashed publicly with Mamdani on various public safety issues, though they have been largely aligned on the importance of upholding the city’s sanctuary laws.

The audit questionnaire reviewed by POLITICO was sent to the NYPD by Bitta Mostofi, a top immigration adviser in Mamdani’s office who previously served in former President Joe Biden’s administration. POLITICO first reported in February that Mamdani had tapped Mostofi to spearhead the audits, which are also targeting the departments of correction, probation, social services and health as well as the Administration for Children’s Services.

Most of the other questions on the NYPD form relate to its internal policies on interacting with ICE.

For instance, the form shows Mamdani’s administration is seeking all protocols for how the NYPD responds when ICE officials call for police backup — an issue that landed in the local limelight last weekend after a chaotic ICE action at a Brooklyn hospital.

In the Saturday incident, ICE agents brought a detainee to Brooklyn’s Wyckoff Heights Medical Center after he had asked for medical attention, according to an account from the Trump administration. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the hospital, and some turned violent, smashing the window on an ICE vehicle, as agents transported the detainee back to a car after he was discharged. NYPD officers responded and were seen on video separating protesters from ICE agents.

Local Democratic elected officials, including ones allied with Mamdani, voiced outrage after the videos emerged on social media, saying they showed the NYPD coordinating with ICE in violation of sanctuary laws.

Mamdani defended the NYPD against the coordination accusations, telling reporters Monday there was “none of that” at play outside the hospital.

On Tuesday, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who was among the progressives criticizing the NYPD’s response, told POLITICO it’s incumbent on Mamdani and Tisch to lay out a clear protocol for handling incidents like the one outside the hospital.

“Once we see it, the community can assess whether it’s satisfactory,” said Reynoso, who’s running for Congress this year against a Mamdani-endorsed rival. “But let me be clear: New York is a sanctuary city. There should be no coordination with ICE at all.”

The NYPD audit questionnaire — which was sent weeks before the recent tumult in Brooklyn — also asked for all policies the department has on how cops respond “to a 911 call from a resident about ICE” as well as to reports of “misconduct of federal agents” and attempts by ICE “to enter a property without authorization.”

NYPD and Mamdani spokespeople declined to share any formal responses the department has provided so far to the questionnaire.

The questionnaire directed the department to submit a “draft audit” to the mayor’s office with responses to all inquiries by April 20. The form then says the NYPD and the mayor’s office would review the draft before a finalized submission to Mamdani by May 7.

Mamdani spokespeople would not immediately say whether the administration will publicize the full finalized audits from the six agencies after their submission deadline this week.