In June of 2016, Santa Clara County became the first municipality in the country to adopt a surveillance transparency ordinance, also known as CCOPS. Santa Clara’s ordinance, being the first one, is comprehensive. On January 26, 2021, the Santa Clara…
Author: Tracy Rosenberg
Refocusing License Plate Readers
Senate Bill 210 passed the California Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23 by a 9-1 vote. A bill has been introduced in the CA State Legislature to refocus California’s ubiquitous automated license plate readers from tracking the movements of every…
Oakland City Council Approves Drone Use and Bans Predictive Policing and Biometric Surveillance
In a busy surveillance day at the Oakland City Council, the council approved a use policy for drone use in Oakland. The city currently does not own any drones, but has borrowed from the stable of drones owned by the…
AB 1185 Letter to the Journal
After a 2 year long process, AB 1185, which allows either a county board of supervisors (by vote) or county residents (by referendum) to set up a sheriff oversight board with subpoena power, is a law. On the last day…
Writ of Mandate Granted in Oakland Privacy vs. Vallejo
You can read it below. The decision has been added to the Westlaw database. Oakland Privacy v. City of Vallejo, No. FCS054805, 2020 WL 8019580, at *1 (Cal.Super. Nov. 23, 2020).
Ringing Alarm Bells
A study of implicit bias in consumer surveillance device use in San Francisco Noting the rapid spread of Ring/Law Enforcement collaborative agreements in Northern California, Oakland Privacy embarked on a study of the content that device owners in San Francisco…
SF Police Sued Over Public/Private Camera Use To Surveil BLM Protests
Update 1/27/2020: On January 26, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to a) disclose annually to the City any donations received in excess of $100 and not accept donations that are anonymous b) b) shall not use…
Oakland Public Safety Committee Debates JTTF Withdrawal
Update: Oakland terminated its MOU with the JTTF task force on 10-20-20. On October 13 at 2:3opm, Oakland’s Public Safety committee will debate a measure from City Council chair Rebecca Kaplan to withdraw the Oakland Police Department from the Joint…
Vallejo Stingray Use Policy Up for Public Comment at October 27 City Council Meeting
Update: 11-17-2020 The Vallejo City Council incorporated changes requested by Oakland Privacy, ACLU and EFF to strengthen the use policy, including restrictions on First Amendment use, datasharing with federal immigration, publishing a quarterly log, and returning to Council for any…
What Can We Learn From Cell Site Simulator Logs
by Mike Katz-Lacabe We recently obtained and reviewed cell site simulator (CSS) logs from a number of police departments to see what we could learn about how they are used. Cell site simulators, frequently referred to as stingrays, are devices…