NYPD Surveillance Films

Over the last year, the Municipal Archives digitized more than 140 hours of 16mm surveillance-film footage created by the New York City Police Department (NYPD)’s photography unit between 1960 and 1980.

The entire collection is streaming on the Municipal Archives’ digital gallery. The Municipal Archives will host a special program to describe the process and offer a sampling of the films on November 7th, Public Safety Film: Digitized Content from the NYPD Surveillance Files.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Brooklyn Board of Education; 110 Livingston Street [anti-segregation demonstration], June 18, 1963. New York Police Department surveillance films, NYC Municipal Archives.

The footage provides an extraordinary, never-before-seen visual record of one of the most tumultuous eras in American history. Among the highlights in the collection is footage of the first Earth Day march in 1970, a Nation of Islam rally, CORE and NAACP protests of segregation, Young Lords building occupations, early protests by gay-rights advocates, massive anti-war marches and demonstrations after the Kent State shootings in May 1970.

The Municipal Archives transferred the film from the NYPD photography unit in 2015 as part of a larger collection of photographic materials including glass, nitrate, acetate and polyester-base negatives and silver-gelatin prints. Many of these images are also available in the digital gallery.

The films were created by the NYPD photography unit. Staffed by police officers trained as both still and moving image photographers, the unit served all branches of the service. The film footage had been commissioned by the NYPD Bureau of Special Services and Investigations (BOSSI) to support their surveillance activities. Plainclothes police officers photographed some events clandestinely; others were filmed openly with movie-style cameras positioned next to police vehicles.

Anti-War Rally, 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, August 2, 1969. New York Police Department surveillance films, NYC Municipal Archives. By 1969, the Vietnam War had become a focal point for a wide array of social causes and concerns. Among the anti-war activists were supporters of the Black Panthers, the Gay Activists Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society, and more.

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The NYPD’s surveillance of individuals and organizations perceived as enemies of the status quo dates back to early 1900s. At different periods, the focus was on anarchists, labor leaders, Nazi supporters, white supremacists, socialists, and communists. The film footage dates from the heyday of the BOSSI squad, during the 1960s and 1970s when they gathered intelligence on individuals and groups arrayed along the political spectrum, but particularly civil rights, anti-war and feminist activists. Their subjects included the Communist Party, Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam, the National Renaissance Party, and Youth Against War and Fascism. The footage captures the high point of the civil-rights movement and the diverse groups it inspired for black power and pride, the rights of women, gays and lesbians, and prisoners as well as the crusades against poverty, environmental degradation and the Vietnam War.

Not all of the footage is related to the NYPD’s surveillance activities. Some of the films provide straight-forward documentation of significant events. For example, the collection includes footage of President Richard Nixon walking behind Jacqueline Kennedy at the funeral for Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968.

This film footage is closely related to the historical paper records, often referred to as the “Handschu” files. That collection totals more than 500 cubic feet and spans 1955-1972. The hard copy files consist of materials created or acquired by Special Services during the infiltration and surveillance of individuals and groups. In a class-action federal suit, Barbara Handschu and other complainants sued the NYPD on the basis that the surveillance of their meetings and activities violated constitutionally-protected rights. In the 1985 resolution of the case the federal judge included guidelines for surveillance and investigations, and required that the Municipal Archives receive all of these records in order to determine if they have historical importance.

Digitization of the films was supported by a grant from the New York State Archives’ Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund. The films were scanned to create digital video files in .mov and .mp4 formats for master and access versions, respectively.

Wall Street [Union workers protest Mayor Lindsay's reaction to the “Hard Hat Riot”], May 11, 1970. New York Police Department surveillance films, NYC Municipal Archives. The Hard Hat Riots took place when 200 unionized construction workers violently broke up a Kent State shooting solidarity rally held by college and high school students in downtown Manhattan. This film depicts one of the many parades construction workers held in the days afterward, showing their support for President Nixon and their ire for Mayor Lindsay, who had condemned the actions of the rioters.