On September 12, 2019, Oakland Privacy will be honored at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Awards Ceremony for our surveillance activism.
Press Release – EFF
Press Release – Oakland Privacy
Oakland Privacy – 2019 Pioneer Award
Mission Creep – Berkeley’s License Plate Readers
Update: November 12th is the day Berkeley’s automated license plate reader policy hits the council.
Berkeleyside: Berkeley Is Being Bamboozled
Update: On September 4, 2019, Berkeley’s Police Review Commission, which is empowered by the surveillance ordinance to provide recommendations regarding surveillance equipment usage polices, passed on the proposed license plate reader policy with two caveats – a) that the policy represented an expansion of scope beyond parking enforcement purposes and b) that the usage clause to “canvasss any crime scene” was unacceptably broad. The caveats allowed two commissioners to vote yes who were otherwise unwilling to do so, thus allowing the policy to move through the commission. The final vote with the caveats was 6-2-1. The license plate reader policy will be brought to the Council by BPD chief Greenwood later this fall.
In March of 2018, Berkeley passed a surveillance transparency ordinance. Nine months earlier, in July of 2017, the City Council (with 3 dissenting votes) expanded the City’s license plate reader “pilot program” by adding 15 additional readers and making the program permanent. At that meeting, the purpose of the ALPR equipment was clearly defined as parking enforcement and the issuing of parking citations.
Fast forward to 2019, and at a Police Review Commission subcommittee meeting on August 7th, things were a bit different.
2018 Contract Between Law Enforcement NLETS Database and ICE-ERO
A newly-released comprehensive list of ICE contracts from 2010-2018 released by Sludge has revealed a 2018 contract between the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications Agency (NLETS) and ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations. The contract document (dated September 21 2018 PR# 192118EROLESA 0053 is below.
The 2018 sole source contract is for $3.8 million over a five year period from 2018 to 2023. It’s purpose is to create a standardized list of crime codes. The contract states: “The work done under this contract will help ICE (and other state and national law enforcement agencies) conduct criminal history searches faster and with greater accuracy. This requirement directly supports the overall missions of ICE and ERO to identify, remove and arrest aliens who present a danger to national security, or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the United States illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of our immigration laws and our border control efforts.”
San Mateo County To Revise UOF Policies After Taser Deaths – Reportedly
On July 23, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors announced coming changes to their Use of Force (UOF) policies, partially in response to three taser fatalities at the hands of San Mateo County sheriffs in a year, most notably the murder of Chinedu Okobi in October of 2018.
Press coverage: SF Gate: Sheriff Revisiting Use of Force Policy After Taser Death, NBC Bay Area: San Mateo County Changing Use of Force Policy, KPIX: San Mateo Sheriff Revising Use of Policy
Oakland Passes Facial Recognition Ban
Following in San Francisco’s footsteps, the City of Oakland passed on first reading a modification of their Surveillance Transparency Ordinance that totally bans the use of facial recognition technology by the municipality. The municipal ban becomes the third in the nation, following San Francisco and Somerville, Massachusetts.
Privacy Groups Preserve CA Consumer Privacy Act
The CA Legislature passed the California Consumer Privacy Act in a heated rush a year ago and just beat the clock for a planned statewide ballot initiative by a matter of hours. Consumer privacy advocates grumbled that the bill could be a bit better, industry groups promised to challenge it in 2019, and the one thing everyone agreed on was that some changes would happen. But on July 9th, the best efforts of the business lobby …. failed.
SF Chronicle: Fight to Change CA’s Landmark Privacy Law Fizzles