Cell Site Simulators, Public Records

FBI Will Neither Confirm or Deny the Existence of the Documents I Just Printed

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This headline, from reporter Dell Cameron in a Gizmodo article about a federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the FBI, highlights the public records work of Oakland Privacy’s Mike Katz-Lacabe.

Here are 26 of them, compiled by Mike Katz-Lacabe at the Center for Human Rights and Privacy. I’m not a lawyer, but feel free to judge for yourself.

Gizmodo 12-17-2021

The FBI issued a Glomar response to public records requests for the documents, which had already been acquired and publicly displayed by Katz-Lacabe.

We now know what’s real, even if the FBI is free, for now, to pretend otherwise.

Gizmodo 12-17-2021

Immigration and ICE

San Mateo County Ends ICE Transfers

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After a lengthy Truth Act Forum on November 3, San Mateo County Sheriff Carlos Bolanos announced that San Mateo County will no longer respond to notification requests from ICE. 

In a statement, Bolanos said “It simply is not worth losing the trust of many members of the public by continuing to process these requests from ICE,” Bolanos said. “Our policy is now consistent with other Bay Area counties. 

The change in policy came as a majority of the Board of Supervisors said they supported a change in policy, including supervisors Pine, Canepa and Slocum.

San Mateo, according to the Mercury News, accounted for 74% of the released inmates transferred to ICE in 2020 from the 9 Bay Area counties.

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Public Records

Public Records Class Action Lawsuit Against Oakland Police Department Settled

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A class action lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department for outstanding public records, filed by 3 free-lance journalists (Scott Morris, Sarah Belle Lin, Brian Krans) and Oakland Privacy has settled. The City of Oakland agreed to release all outstanding public records requests to the Oakland Police Department filed from August of 2017 onwards within the next 15 months, with non-personnel records due in 6 months and records released under SB 1421 using the longer 15 month maximum.

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Uncategorized

Help Us Welcome 2022 Privacy Rights Fellow Yadi Younse.

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Oakland Privacy is thrilled to announce that Yadi Younse will be our 2022 Privacy Rights Fellow, a new part-time special projects position that has generously been funded by the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment. We had a dozen excellent candidates and it was incredibly difficult to choose just one.

Yadi comes to Oakland Privacy after dipping into grassroots privacy activism with Pasadena Privacy for All, where she has set up privacy advocacy infrastructure and worked on Shotspotter and Facial Recognition issues with her local City Council.

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Transparency Ordinance

Vallejo Sets Up Police Surveillance Advisory Board – Searching for Members

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Now that the year-long process of establishing a Police Surveillance Advisory Board in Vallejo is drawing to a close, it is time to turn our attention to seating members on this board. Vallejo is a small city, with only 141,000 people, and the SAB is an important first step in changing the culture from police impunity to one of oversight and civic empowerment. The SAB is advisory and is charged with guiding the City Council regarding the acquisition and use of surveillance equipment and technology, collecting public input from Vallejo residents and recommending policies and legislation regarding such use. Each City Council member appoints one member to the body and it meets as often as needed but no less than bimonthly.

Each Council district in Vallejo represents approximately 20,000 people, so people who live in Vallejo who care about privacy protections, civil rights, law enforcement overreach, and civilian oversight should seriously consider if they can throw their hat into the ring to help this SAB get off to a good start. The SAB has the ability to consult experts for assistance in crafting their recommendations and advice, and will have our support as well as that of the ACLU and others. 

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Cell Site Simulators, Facial Recognition, Public Records

Public Records: Long Beach PD

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The Aaron Swartz Police Surveillance Project and Open the Government teamed up to file suit against the Long Beach Police Department for withholding requested records. In response to the lawsuit, a number of records have been released about the Long Beach Police Department’s use of facial recognition and cell site simulators.

The entire cache of documents is available for review here.

Celebrity Training Images from LACRIS manual

In this blog, we’ll highlight a couple of specific documents.

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