Sometimes local jurisdictions don’t follow their own laws. Sometimes local jurisdictions don’t follow state laws. Sometimes, when one politely points these things out or calls them out in the press, a local jurisdiction will either ignore you or fail to rectify the problem; sometimes they push back and claim they are following the law even though the plain English of the law says otherwise.
In such cases, one is left with no alternative but to seek legal redress – i.e. sue in court – or give up. Oakland Privacy has been fortunate of late to obtain the services of lawyers willing to work with us (and other privacy advocates) pro bono (or for attorney’s fees if the case is successful), and we have recent filed three lawsuits and threatened others. Following is a short description of these three suits.
Vallejo: In June of 2020 we filed a lawsuit against the City of Vallejo, after notifying them repeatedly via letter and public testimony that they were violating state law regarding the acquisition of a Stingray (cell-site simulator) surveillance device. ( Lawsuit text)
As of the end of September, 2020, we won a preliminary injunction in court, and the City of Vallejo agreed to follow state law by discussing and voting on a use policy for the device at their October 27th City Council meeting.
Sacramento: Also in June, 2020 we filed a lawsuit against the Sacramento County Sheriff for refusing to produce certain public records, in violation of California’s Public Records Act, regarding Memorandums of Understanding the department had signed.
In July, 2020 the Sheriff agreed to produce these records, ending the lawsuit but not before we were able to obtain attorneys’ fees; something that could have been avoided had the Sheriff just produced the records to begin with.
Oakland: In August, 2020, Oakland Privacy and local Bay Area reporters filed suit ( lawsuit text) against the City of Oakland, directed specifically at its police department, for failing to respond to Public Records requests in a timely fashion as required by state law and Oakland’s own Sunshine Ordinance. Cited were public records requests going back years, ignored by the Oakland Police save for a monthly notice that a responsive request would be, yet again, postponed for another month.
As of October, 2020, this case is still in the preliminary stages. Here is an article about the case.