Cell Site Simulators

Oakland Privacy Sues Vallejo Over Stingray Purchase

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by Mike Katz-Lacabe

Update 6/1/2020 Oakland Privacy and resident-plaintiffs Solange Echeverria and Daniel Rubins sued the City of Vallejo over their recent stingray purchase. In the complaint, Oakland Privacy states that the purchase violated state law by voting to acquire the cell phone interceptor without a city council review of the use policy and by not allowing public input into the stingray use policy from city residents.

The complaint also states the police-department-produced policy is inadequate. It does not specify which departmental job titles may use the stingray and access its data and it allows use of the device without a judicial warrant whenever there is a threat of bodily injury of any kind.

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Video Surveillance

Surveillance Equipment of Some Bay Area Law Enforcement Aircraft

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Oakland Police Department McDonnell Douglas 369E helicopter N510PD

Police aircraft are frequently spotted circling around peaceful protests around the country. These aircraft are typically equipped with high-powered cameras with equipment capable of recording and transmitting the video captured by the equipment. This article focuses on law enforcement aircraft used in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Transparency Ordinance

Eternal Vigilance is the Price

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by J.P. Massar

Passing legislation is only half the battle.  Without oversight by watchdogs, be they legislators or public-interest organizations or both, executives can easily ignore inconvenient laws that increase their workload or their budget. Without pushback, the interpretation of laws can be twisted to belay legislation’s intent.

All of this was in play in May of 2020 as the Berkeley City Council considered whether to sign on to a contract with CycloMedia to take snapshot, panoramic views of Berkeley’s streets.  The City Manager had decided that this process did not fall under Berkeley’s Surveillance Ordinance, issuing two memos to that effect. Some City Councilors and Oakland Privacy advocates thought otherwise based on the plain English meaning of the ordinance.

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Body Worn Cameras

Body Cameras Didn’t Reduce Use of Force in San Leandro

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When the San Leandro Police Department tried to convince the San Leandro City Council to approve its $441,306.84 purchase of body-worn cameras in May 2014, it argued that the cameras would lead to a reduction in the use of force by its police officers. However, that didn’t happen. Six years of use of force data provided by the San Leandro Police Department in response to public records requests shows that use of force increased in the years following the purchase.

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License Plate Readers

Novato to Track Terrorists with License Plate Readers on Highway 37

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by Mike Katz-Lacabe

According to a $60,000 grant the Novato Police Department recently received from the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative, new automated license plate readers (ALPRs) will be installed on Highway 37 to track terrorists.

However, no suspected terrorists have been tracked or identified with Novato’s existing ALPRs, which have been in use since 2012. We asked Novato City Manager Adam McGill for information on how many suspected terrorists had been detected or tracked with Novato’s existing ALPRs. McGill forwarded the request to Novato Police Lieutenant Christopher Jacob, who responded, “According to our records, we have not detected any hot plates related to or associated with terrorism.”

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Transparency Ordinance

Surveillance Transparency in Santa Clara County

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Santa Clara County passed the first surveillance transparency ordinance in the United States on June 7, 2016. They remain the only county in the nation to have a surveillance oversight law in effect. (The others are in cities or regional transit districts).

So how is it working? This video snippet from the Board of Supervisors May 12 meeting is a look at an acquisition with use policy and impact report brought before the Supervisors for approval, before the technology is acquired.

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