For nearly a decade, the New York Police Department's gang database spurred controversy. Police said it was a vital tool to curb gang violence, but advocates contended that it used flimsy evidence to target people of color. So in 2018, the city’s Department of Investigation initiated a four-year probe into the strategy.

Now, The Trace and Gothamist have learned, the NYPD has created another list, this one focused on gun violence. Neither the NYPD nor the Adams administration have announced the list's creation, nor has the news media reported on it. But two law enforcement supervisors with direct knowledge of the list confirmed that the list exists.

The NYPD drew up the Gun Recidivist Investigation Program list, known as the GRIP List, soon after Mayor Eric Adams took office earlier this year, an NYPD supervisor with knowledge of the list said. The list is made up of people the department believes are involved in recent gun violence.

Civil liberties and anti-surveillance advocates are concerned about the list, which both the advocates and law enforcement sources say may include not just people with gun charges, but also suspects, witnesses, and victims. Law enforcement sources said rank-and-file officers can access the list through an internal NYPD portal and that several NYPD units are using the list as part of investigations, on patrol, and to surveil those on the list.

Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael LePetri, who helped create the GRIP list, referred to it at a March City Council committee hearing on Adams’ Blueprint to End Gun Violence. His comments weren’t picked up by the news media at the time. At the hearing, LePetri didn’t divulge details about the list’s makeup or criteria, but he argued that it enables the department to be precise by focusing on a limited number of people it alleges are driving gun violence.