capitalnewyork | Computers operating on the New York Police Department’s computer
network at its 1 Police Plaza headquarters have been used to alter
Wikipedia pages containing details of alleged police brutality, a review
by Capital has revealed.
“The matter is under internal review,”
an NYPD spokeswoman, Det. Cheryl Crispin, wrote in an email to Capital
after examples of the changes were presented to the NYPD.
The
edits and changes were linked to the NYPD through a series of Internet
Protocol addresses, or IP addresses, which can be publicly tracked by
various websites. (Here, for example, is one website that shows a number of IP addresses registered to the NYPD.) IP addresses can locate where a computer is when it connects to the Internet.
Computer
users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters'
network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for
several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for
Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Capital identified 85 NYPD
addresses that have edited Wikipedia, although it is unclear how many
users were involved, as computers on the NYPD network can operate on the
department’s range of IP addresses.
NYPD IP addresses have also been used to edit entries on
stop-and-frisk, NYPD scandals, and prominent figures in the city’s
political and police leadership.
There are more than 15,000 IP
addresses registered to the NYPD, which employs 50,000 people, including
uniformed officers and civilians. Notable Wikipedia activity was linked
to about a dozen of those NYPD IP addresses. Fist tap Ed.
