Application Date: 9/30/24
CUID: 5301017
Email: rss352@cornell.edu
Name: Rachel Sulciner
Honors or Independent Study: HIST 4001, first semester of Honors thesis
Project Title: Surveillance as a Condition For “Safety”: How the 1960’s and 1970’s Created a Model for the State’s Powers to Watch Citizens
Project Supervisor: Julily Kohler-Hausmann
Funding Amount: 700
Budget:
Travel to/from NYC	250
stay in nyc	250
transport within the city (subways)	30
potential copy fees	150
Museum of the city of new york ticket	14

Statement of Research Plan:
In 1985, a federal court found that the surveillance methods used by The New York City Police Department’s Bureau of Special Services and Investigations (BOSSI) were unconstitutional. BOSSI was born (under a different name) in 1912, tasked with the mission to investigate the status of legal and illegal aliens in New York City. Throughout the following four decades, the Bureau’s objective transformed, becoming a facet of the NYPD’s efforts to combat political dissent. BOSSI conducted investigations as directed by the Police Commissioner and the Chief of Detectives, with agents operating in plain clothes, unbeknownst to the subjects they were recording. BOSSI agents surveilled major protests against the war in Vietnam and police brutality, to smaller disputes surrounding raising the tax on hot dogs or celebrations for successful NASA missions.

In 1971, members of the Black Panther Party in New York City, known as the
Panther 21, were tried for conspiracy to blow up department stores and police stations. After only 90 minutes of jury deliberation, they were acquitted of all charges. The trial exposed the extent in which the NYPD had infiltrated the Panthers, but also, other civic organizations and advocacy groups. Following the trial, Barabara Handschu, alongside 15 other plaintiffs, filed a class-action lawsuit against the City of New York, its Police
Commissioner, and the Intelligence Division of the New York City Police Department. This lawsuit, and its failures to regulate the NYPDis a focus of my thesis.

Through my project, I hope to explore whether or not legal activism was effective during this period. Visiting the Southern District of New York Court, The NYC Municipal Archive, and The City of New York Museum, will allow me to gather information regarding whether it would have been possible to create change through political/social activism during this period without the surveillance of BOSSI. The archival materials are expansive, and largely located in New York City, not yet digitized. They are integral to my thesis.

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