Immigration and ICE

San Mateo County Ends ICE Transfers

by  •  • 0 Comments

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.

Read more →

Public Records

Public Records Class Action Lawsuit Against Oakland Police Department Settled

by  •  • 0 Comments

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.

Read more →

Uncategorized

Help Us Welcome 2022 Privacy Rights Fellow Yadi Younse.

by  •  • 0 Comments

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.

Read more →

Transparency Ordinance

Vallejo Sets Up Police Surveillance Advisory Board – Searching for Members

by  •  • 0 Comments

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. 

Read more →

Cell Site Simulators, Facial Recognition, Public Records

Public Records: Long Beach PD

by  •  • 0 Comments

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.

Read more →

Uncategorized

Announcing: OP Privacy Rights Fellowships

by  •  • 0 Comments

We are thrilled to announce that thanks to the generosity of the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment and the fiscal sponsorship of the Omni Commons, OP will be hosting paid part-time fellowships in 2021-2022 and again in 2022-2023.

Fellows will be working on a variety of special projects, including functional global privacy controls, public records and rapid response structures. Please see application below.

Read more →