theintercept | In August, 40 federal agents arrived
in Memphis. Some were already on the ground by the time U.S. Attorney
Michael Dunavant announced the onset of Operation Legend and the city
became, along with St. Louis, the seventh to be targeted by the Justice
Department’s heavy-handed initiative to reduce violent crime. Many of
the agents are on temporary assignment, working in collaboration with
police; nearly half will relocate by November. But they will leave
behind a city flush with grant money for local police — and heightened
surveillance capabilities.
In Memphis, organizers have long battled police surveillance.
The fight came to a head in 2017, when a lawsuit against the city of
Memphis revealed years of close surveillance of Black Lives Matter
activists and union organizers. “We knew we were being watched and
monitored and surveilled,” said Hunter Demster, an activist who was
tracked on social media by MPD. The suit was successful, and in 2018, a
federal judge ordered an independent monitor to oversee policing in the
city. Now, activists there say that Operation Legend is a serious blow.
Operation Legend and its December precursor,
Operation Relentless Pursuit, are both funding surveillance technology
in cities across the country. Through Operation Legend, Memphis and four
other cities received grants for gunshot detection technology, which
lines cities with sensors to detect gunfire, despite longstanding
concerns about its efficacy. Other more opaque grants from the Justice
Department, like a $1.4 million grant to Shelby County, which surrounds
Memphis, in April and a $1 million grant in July to the city of
Cleveland, are to be used in part for “technological solutions” or
“support” for investigations.
Awash in these federal funds, cities have doubled down on their surveillance investments, even as they face general budget shortfalls in the tens of millions. On August 4, two days before Operation Legend was formally announced in the city, Memphis signed a new contract with Cellebrite, an Israeli forensics manufacturer popular with law enforcement, whose products can hack and extract data from smartphones. The estimated $65,000 contract would double previous annual spending on the technology, per city procurement records. The Memphis police declined an interview request for this story and did not respond to several additional inquiries about the purchases.
Awash in these federal funds, cities have doubled down on their surveillance investments, even as they face general budget shortfalls in the tens of millions. On August 4, two days before Operation Legend was formally announced in the city, Memphis signed a new contract with Cellebrite, an Israeli forensics manufacturer popular with law enforcement, whose products can hack and extract data from smartphones. The estimated $65,000 contract would double previous annual spending on the technology, per city procurement records. The Memphis police declined an interview request for this story and did not respond to several additional inquiries about the purchases.
