Author: Mike Katz-Lacabe

Kaiser Conducting Mass Surveillance of its Members

Kaiser Permanente has been conducting mass surveillance of its members for years and is sharing that information with law enforcement. Public records requests and publicly-available information have revealed that numerous Kaiser Permanente facilities in California have installed surveillance cameras that…

Stingray Secrecy and the San Jose Police Department

Since 2014, San Jose has been claiming that a non-disclosure agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pertaining to its purchase of a cell-site simulator from Harris Corporation is completely exempt from disclosure. After more than seven years, the San Jose Police Department released…

Who’s Looking at Your License Plate Data?

There are 32 agencies that submit license plate reader data to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), the regional fusion center for Northern California. However, many more agencies are able to access that data once it has been sent…

San Ramon Approves Massive Surveillance Increase

San Ramon, a small city in Contra Costa County with a very low crime rate, approved spending more than $1.2 million to blanket the city in automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and surveillance cameras at its April 28, 2020, meeting.…

Surveillance Equipment of Some Bay Area Law Enforcement Aircraft

Police aircraft are frequently spotted circling around peaceful protests around the country. These aircraft are typically equipped with high-powered cameras with equipment capable of recording and transmitting the video captured by the equipment. This article focuses on law enforcement aircraft…