People who refused to let cops photograph their irises after getting arrested during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations say the NYPD has held them in custody for much longer than other protesters. Activist Samantha Wilson tells the Times that when she was being booked in December, she refused to cooperate with the controversial iris scan, which the NYPD began implementing in 2010. Wilson says the cop told her, "It’s not really optional. It’ll take you longer to get out of here if you don’t do it." And apparently he wasn't bluffing—Wilson wasn't released from Central Booking for 36 hours.
Another protester who was arrested in Zuccotti Park for lying down on a bench in January says she was held for two nights in the Tombs after refusing the eye scan. But another demonstrator arrested at the same time as her got released after just one night. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne insists he "knew of no incidents in which defendants had been held longer than usual after refusing to allow their irises to be photographed."
The high-tech identification program was ostensibly created to keep prisoners from slipping away as they move through the court system—in two embarrassing incidents in 2010, two prisoners escaped detention by posing as another perp at arraignment. But the department has been criticized for implementing it without any legislative oversight. The NYPD insists the iris photographs are essentially the same as mug shots, and are eventually destroyed. But one Legal Aid Society attorney says, "It’s only a matter of time before we challenge this change in practice.”
