by JP Massar No one had a clue the thing even existed. Buried deep within the consent agenda of the Oakland City Council for years, appropriations for the Domain Awareness Center and the implications thereof had gone unnoticed. Until,…
Author: Tracy Rosenberg
An Open Letter To Those Who Have Nothing to Hide
by Admin I love a good argument. Most that I have these days tend to focus on civil liberties, and the issue of government surveillance comes up frequently. It’s usually during these debates, running on some soliloquy-within-a-soliloquy about the ever-increasing…
August 16 HSI/ICE Raid in West Oakland
KPIX coverage of the August 16 Homeland Security Investigations (ICE) raid in the City of Oakland. The raid came less than a month after the Oakland City Council rejected a memorandum of understanding with Homeland Security Investigations and terminated it, saying they did not want the City’s police department cooperating with ICE. Oakland Privacy Commission chair Brian Hofer reflects on the bad optics of the Police Department’s decision.
Internet Of Things; Things Like Walls, Blockades And Checkpoints
By Christina Rosalita One of Trump’s campaign promises was to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico. It was a popular political rally cry, but a physical wall spanning the entire border is, in reality; a…
The Police State Will Be Funded
2017 Bay Area UASI grants have been announced. The full PDF for the Bay Area is below. 44 total projects were funded. Here are some particular grants of interest.
Stopping STOPS: Urban Shield Vendor Vetoed Due To Racist Stereotyping
Originally printed at: https://media-alliance.org/stopping-stops-urban-shield-vendor-vetoed-due-to-racist-stereotyping/ On August 1,the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, which has been under fire for several years over the police militarization expo Urban Shield, took its first action to enforce 12 reform principles the Board embraced in…
ICE Deported
On July 18, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to terminate the Oakland Police Department’s federal agreement with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), formerly known as ICE. The resolution by Council Member Rebecca Kaplan followed a unanimous recommendation from the…
Statewide Surveillance Transparency Ordinance (SB21) Passes 6-3
In its last policy committee hearing in Sacramento, SB21, a statewide surveillance transparency ordinance, passed the Assembly Privacy Committee on a 6-3 vote. It now travels to Assembly Appropriations, the Assembly floor and then to the Governor’s desk.
In the hearing, law enforcement (DA and Sheriff’s Associations) and the League of CA Cities continued to state their opposition to public disclosure and community control of the use of surveillance technologies. They said a few amazing things along the way.
The Day of Many Votes
On July 11, a whole bunch of good things happened: Alameda’s Board of Supervisors formally convened a working group to draft a surveillance transparency ordinance for Alameda County; SB-21 (the statewide surveillance transparency ordinance) passed the Assembly Privacy committee –…
Oakland Privacy Commission – License Plate Readers
In this brief clip from the July 6 Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission meeting, Oakland Police Department Assistant Chief John Lois stated under questioning that he was aware of no legal authority that allows the collection of data on people…