Google employees demand company cuts contracts with police in leaked letter

Microsoft and Facebook employees have also protested against company behaviour

Google CEO Sundar Pichai spoke to staff on Thursday (Getty)

More than 1600 Google employees are demanding that the company stop selling technology to police departments.

“We’re disappointed to know that Google is still selling to police forces, and advertises its connection with police forces as somehow progressive, and seeks more expansive sales rather than severing ties with police and joining the millions who want to defang and defund these institutions,” the letter reads, according to Techcrunch.

“Why help the institutions responsible for the knee on George Floyd’s neck to be more effective organizationally? Not only that, but the same Clarkstown police force being advertised by Google as a success story has been sued multiple times for illegal surveillance of Black Lives Matter organizers.”

The letter, signed by 1666 employees, was addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Alphabet is Google’s parent company.

“The racist legacy of police across the United States goes all the way back to its roots, when police forces emerged to protect the wealth gotten from slavery and genocide,” the letter goes on.

“We have a long way to go to address the full legacy of racism but to begin with — we should not be in the business of profiting from racist policing. We should not be in the business of criminalizing Black existence while we chant that Black Lives Matter. We, the undersigned Googlers, call on you to stop making our technology available to police forces.”

Google employees have made the company make changes before.

Workers have resigned in protest over Google developing artificial intelligence technology for the military, leading to the company pledging to never work on AI weapons projects.

Workers have also walked out in response to the company’s reponse to sexual harassment allegations.

In a statement, Google said that it was “committed to work that makes a meaningful difference to combat systemic racism, and our employees have made over 500 product suggestions in recent weeks, which we are reviewing.”

Despite this, it would not end the contracts it has with law enforcement for its general workplace software.

“We have longstanding terms of use for generally available computing platforms like Gmail, GSuite and Google Cloud Platform, and these products will remain available for Governments and local authorities, including police departments, to use.”

Google is not the only company whose employees are asking for better approaches to their relationships with police departments.

Some 250 Microsoft employees signed a letter addressed to the company’s executives asking that it takes greater action in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Facebook employees also staged a walkout over the company’s decision not to take action against controversial posts from Donald Trump, in what employees are calling an “abusive relationship” with the president.