Interview with Matthew Guariglia ’12, Senior Policy Analyst at Electronic Frontier Foundation

Student Project Manager Ella Layton ’26 interviews Dr. Matthew Guariglia about his book Police & the Empire City: Race & the Origins of Modern Policing in New York (2023). Dr. Guariglia talks specifically about the technologies and ideas that formed the New York Police Department starting in the middle of the 19th century and how those persist today. He argues that surveillance-based policing harms all Americans and provides examples on how he’s fought these invasive police practices as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Guariglia also discusses policing and the prison system more broadly on the question of reform or abolition. Read more