
Testimony on NYC's COVID-19 Testing and Contact Tracing Program
Virtually all New Yorkers share the fervent desire to safely re-open the City, and there is broad consensus that contact tracing is an essential component to doing so. Unfortunately, a necessary ingredient for effective contact tracing – community trust – is still missing.
As our nation stands in the midst of a long-overdue reckoning on racism, police brutality, and white supremacy, any distrust New Yorkers, particularly Black and brown New Yorkers, might have of contact tracers, who may, like law enforcement and many in the health care system, carpetbag in from outside of the community, feels understandable.
Contact tracing is too important to get wrong. Ensuring that the T2 program is culturally and linguistically competent and that the contact tracing information collected to mitigate a public health emergency is shielded from law enforcement and ICE are not just privacy and civil rights necessities; they are public health imperatives.
Related Stories

NYCLU Statement on Buzzfeed Investigation Revealing Clearview AI...
April 7, 2021
NYC Just Missed a Chance to Transform the NYPD
April 5, 2021Police Are Not the Answer to Mental Health Crises
April 2, 2021
110 Years After the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, NY is Still...
March 30, 2021NYCLU Continues Lawsuit Against New York State Education Department...
March 26, 2021NYCLU to New York City Council: Reject Mayor de Blasio’s Policing Plan
March 25, 2021