Police Militarization, UASI

2017 Bay Area UASI Equipment Requests

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From a public records terrorist.

License Plate Readers:
  • Novato PD wants $25,388 for two stationary license plate readers
  • Walnut Creek PD wants $109,897 for stationary license plate readers.
  • Contra Costa County Sheriff wants $225,253.19 for mobile and trailer license plate readers
Skynet Project (includes video surveillance and LPR)
  • Solano Co. Sheriff/OES wants $2,080,944.60 to “to observe suspects and suspect vehicles in order to apprehend major offenders before they leave the county.  Unfortunately, one person monitoring 5 lanes of freeway speed traffic, assuming they even got there in time, is difficult.  This project would allow remote viewing and LPR technology to more accurately determine exactly when a suspect or vehicle has passed a beacon and give us surveillance to better apprehend or predict their behavior.”

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Cell Site Simulators

Oakland’s Cell Tower Simulator (Stingray) Policy is the Gold Standard.

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Brian Hofer writes to the Oakland City Council, describing the Cell Phone Tower Simulator (aka Stingray) Use Policy the Oakland Privacy Advisory Committee and the Oakland Police arrived at.  The policy was adopted by the Oakland City Council at their February 7th, 2017, meeting.

 

There is no policy regarding cell site simulators in existence even remotely close to Oakland’s, as to the narrowness of allowable use, oversight, and transparent reporting. Although I was proud of what we accomplished with Alameda County in breaking new ground, the Oakland policy far exceeds all standards at the federal, state, or local level:

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Transparency Ordinance

Reining in and Raining on the Surveillance State

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Groundbreaking legislation that will put limits upon the local surveillance state is up for consideration in the Bay Area these next few months. With a new administration being handed the vast resource of existing Federal surveillance capabilities, it is more crucial than ever that localities understand what their police are doing in this regard and take measures to protect the civil liberties of the people…

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Read the full op-ed we wrote that begins as above, published in the Oakland Post

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Transparency Ordinance

Praise for Oakland’s Proposed Surveillance Equipment Regulation Ordinance!

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Passed out of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission on Thursday, Jan 5th, 2017, the proposed Surveillance Equipment Regulation legislation (OPAC-Surveillance-Ordinance-Adopted – PDF) received praise from a number of people involved in civil liberties work. Here are some quotes and statements of support taken from tweets:

“Oakland’s surveillance ordinance is good example for local govs to protect civil liberties.” – Professor of Law Catherine Crump, University of California at Berkeley (testifying, right)

“It’s never been more essential for communities to say no to secret & discriminatory surveillance.Oakland took important step tonight.” – Nicole Ozer, Policy Director, ACLU of California

“This proposal achieves the goal of formalizing privacy values” – Nuola O’Connor, Center for Democracy and Progress

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Police Militarization

Killer Cop Training – Coming Soon To Northern California

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(Send a note to the Folsom Police Department and the Folsom City Council objecting to the municipal sponsorship of Calibre killer cop trainings). 

Mother Jones profiles Calibre instructor Dave Grossman: “Are You Prepared to Kill Somebody?” A Day With One of America’s Most Popular Police Trainers; The dark vision of “killology” expert Dave Grossman.

 

by J.P. Massar

Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who shot Philando Castile in his car in Minnesota took a training course called “The Bulletproof Warrior,” now renamed as the “Street Survival Seminar.”

The evidence suggests that this course, and courses similar to it, offered by a private company called Calibre Press, are even worse than Urban Shield – the organized para-military and terror response training put on for police by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department – if that’s imaginable.


 

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