Body Worn Camera Policy Modified by Council Review in Berkeley

On March 10, the Berkeley City Council completed their mandatory review of body worn camera policy under the surveillance transparency (CCOPS) ordinance passed in the City in March of 2018.

Surveillance transparency laws require the legislative body to formally approve the law enforcement policy. Berkeley’s mandated review resulted in significant improvements to the policy, including the submission of an initial report in the event of grave bodily injury death prior to the viewing of footage by an involved officer.

Santa Cruz Committee Unanimously Forwards 1st Predictive Policing Ban in US

On March 11, the Public Safety committee of the Santa Cruz City Council unanimously recommended passage of a surveillance transparency ordinance for the City of Santa Cruz.

The proposed ordinance includes a complete ban on the use of predictive policing technologies, including Predpol, a company located in Santa Cruz and one of the early adopters of the software.

The legislation is sponsored by Mayor Justin Cummings, the first Black mayor in Santa Cruz history.

The ordinance is expected to reach the City Council agenda for adoption sometime in April.

ACLU press release

Bay Area UASI 2020

Every March, the Department of Homeland Security gifts Bay Area law enforcement with funds for new equipment through the Bay Area UASI. 55 out of 146 requests will be fulfilled and the winners are ….

  • The City of Vallejo and Highway 37 will get $90,000 worth of automated license plate readers.
  • Sonoma County will get a $290,000 mobile incident command vehicle
  • The City of San Jose will get $232,000 worth of new Shotspotter sensors, automated license plate readers and cameras and a $150,000 video downlink from helicopter
  • The Santa Clara County Sheriff will get a $465,000 helicopter FLIR infrared system
  • Here in Alameda County, the Alameda County Sheriff is preparing for mass fatalities with a $100,000 mass care trailer, a $100,000 Rapid DNA Instrument for Decedent Identification During  Mass Fatality Incidents, a $250,000 Mass Casualty Incident bus and a $249,000 Emergency Mass Notification system.
  • The City of San Francisco gets a $550,00 Tanker Truck.

25 Groups Object to Graham-Blumenthal Anti-Encryption EARNIT Act

25 civil society groups, led by the Open Technology Institute at New America and including Oakland Privacy, sent a letter objecting to the EARNIT Act, which seeks to weaken encryption standards.

The letter states: “By setting the stage for adoption of best practices that, whether directly or indirectly, require companies to avoid offering strong device encryption or end-to-end encrypted messaging services, the bill could create encryption backdoors. Backdoors to encryption make everyone in society more vulnerable to privacy, cybersecurity, and other risks.”

40 Civil Rights Groups Ask Colleges To Keep Facial Recognition Off Campuses

An open letter from an assortment of civil rights groups, including Oakland Privacy, asked university administrators to keep their campuses free of facial recognition.

On March 2, students and faculty at schools across the country will organize to reject facial recognition’s false promises of safety, and stand against the idea of biased 24/7 tracking and analysis of everyone on campus.

CA State Auditor Says CA ALPR Use Imperils Privacy

A state audit of license plate reader use by CA law enforcement agencies requested by State Senator Scott Weiner concluded that existing policies were largely not compliant with existing state law and that laws needed to be strengthened.

The CA State Auditor stated “the law enforcement agencies we reviewed must better protect individuals’ privacy through ensuring that their policies reflect state law. In addition, we found that these agencies must improve their ALPR data security, make more informed decisions about sharing their ALPR data, and expand their oversight of ALPR users.”

 The auditor went on to state: “the statewide survey of law enforcement agencies we conducted found that 70 percent operate or plan to operate an ALPR system, and this raises concerns that these agencies may share the deficiencies we identified at the four agencies we reviewed”.