On July 18, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to terminate the Oakland Police Department’s federal agreement with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), formerly known as ICE. The resolution by Council Member Rebecca Kaplan followed a unanimous recommendation from the City’s Privacy Commission which had investigated the status of all of the City’s agreements with federal law enforcement agencies.
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In its last policy committee hearing in Sacramento, SB21, a statewide surveillance transparency ordinance, passed the Assembly Privacy Committee on a 6-3 vote. It now travels to Assembly Appropriations, the Assembly floor and then to the Governor’s desk.
In the hearing, law enforcement (DA and Sheriff’s Associations) and the League of CA Cities continued to state their opposition to public disclosure and community control of the use of surveillance technologies. They said a few amazing things along the way.
On July 11, a whole bunch of good things happened: Alameda’s Board of Supervisors formally convened a working group to draft a surveillance transparency ordinance for Alameda County; SB-21 (the statewide surveillance transparency ordinance) passed the Assembly Privacy committee – the last policy committee it will face and the 6th consecutive positive vote in Sacramento; and Oakland’s Public Safety committee recommended unanimously the termination of the OPD-ICE agreement and to place all other federal law enforcement agreements under the direct oversight of the City’s Privacy Advisory Commission.
Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan’s interview regarding her proposal to sever ties with ICE is here.
“Let’s have a public conversation so we can determine for ourselves where the lines are drawn,” Hofer said. (Alameda County Surveillance Ordinance)
The Oakland Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to sever ties with ICE, and reign in the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. “Tangling local law enforcement with ICE is a threat to civil rights and safety of all people,” said Tessa D’Arcangelew, a representative of the ACLU of Northern California, which supported the legislation.
In this brief clip from the July 6 Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission meeting, Oakland Police Department Assistant Chief John Lois stated under questioning that he was aware of no legal authority that allows the collection of data on people not suspected of wrongdoing.
Originally printed in the East Bay Express on June 28 2017
On July 11, the City of Oakland’s Public Safety Committee will consider two landmark policies to defend community members against the Trump Administration’s war on sanctuary cities and immigrants.
Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan is sponsoring a resolution that, if adopted, would rescind the Oakland Police Department’s authorization to participate in task forces with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
And Councilmember Lynette Gibson-McElhaney is sponsoring an ordinance that would require OPD officers to adhere at all times to state and local standards when participating in any federal task forces, including the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (“JTTF”), of which ICE is the largest member. In other words, the feds can’t make our cops do anything that’s a violation of our values and rules.
“California spends more time regulating barber shops and taco trucks than on regulating surveillance.”
Brian Hofer, Chair of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission and member of Oakland Privacy, testified before the California State Assembly Public Safety Committee in Sacramento on June 27th, 2017. The Committee later passed by measure with a 4-2 vote. It goes now to the Assembly Privacy Committee and, assuming continued favorable votes, ultimately to the Assembly floor. The legislation, sponsored by Senator Hill, has already passed the California Senate.
Below is a transcript of Brian’s words before the Committee and a video of the SB-21 Hearing