Shotspotter Gunshot Detection

Oakland Police Department Captain Selling Shotspotter Gun Detection Software in Portland

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Portland privacy activists have reported that Oakland Police Captain Trevelyon Jones, the head of OPD’s Shotspotter Division, has been appearing remotely at community meetings in Portland, Oregon at the request of gunshot detection software manufacturer Shotspotter, to hawk their product.

Jones, a city of Oakland employee, appears to be on city time during these appearances, (at least two), in which Shotspotter is trying to gin up community support for a municipal contract. In an earlier appearance, people present at the meeting reported that Lieutenant Jones said he had to depart early from the meeting due to police business.

Why is a high-level OPD lieutenant, who according to Transparent California collected over $60,000 in overtime in 2021 and total compensation of more than $433,000 from the City moonlighting as a Shotspotter sales agent?

Oakland Privacy filed an ethics complaint with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission on 12/21/22. See a copy of the complaint below.

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2023 Privacy Rights Fellow: Jessica Ramos

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Oakland Privacy is pleased to announce that Jessica Ramos will be joining us as the 2023 Privacy Rights Fellow. Jessica is Oakland born-and-raised and is currently pursuing a Ph.D at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. She wrote her senior dissertation at UC Berkeley as an undergraduate on Oakland Privacy’s work. Welcome Jessica!

Thank you to the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment for the generous support to make these fellowships possible.

Outgoing 2022 fellow Yadi Younse sat down with us to talk about her fellowship experience. Read more about Yadi’s 2022 fellowship experience.

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Data Privacy

Don’t Write That Down: Reflections on Body Temperature and Ovulation Surveillance

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by Ursula Curiousa

When I was learning to read and write, my teacher gave me homework to devise my very first survey to deploy with three people. Question 1 for all of us in the class: “What is your name?” Question 2 was of my own design: “What is your favorite animal?” I was six years old. I had already written down the answer to Question 1 for my second respondent, a small-town attorney who usually humored me, when he refused to participate in my survey. “No, I’m not going to answer your questions.” I was so shocked that I remember the scene 29 years later. He smiled wryly and touched his long eyebrows.

“So you’re reading and writing now?” he asked me rhetorically. “Be careful with that. Don’t write everything down.” As a kid, I thought this behavior was bizarre. As I get older and bare-bones privacy protections get stripped away (like the recent over-turn of Roe v. Wade-based abortion protections with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision), I think I am starting to understand.

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Drones

Drones Flew Over The Solano Stroll

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In September, the next door cities of Berkeley and Albany hold a street fair called the Solano Stroll, along the avenue that crosses both cities. The event attracts thousands of people. A report filed with the Berkeley City Council due to the requirements of Berkeley’s surveillance ordinance framework revealed the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office flew drones “unobtrusively” over the event, focusing on the perimeter of the rooftops. The use of the sheriff’s department drones would not have been known to the public without the 2018 surveillance ordinance, which requires reports to the City Council after the temporary use of unpermitted technologies for exigent circumstances.

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Oakland Privacy Privacy Rights Fellowship 2022-2023 – Applications Open

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Oakland Privacy, founded in 2013, is an activist group devoted to fighting against both government and corporate surveillance and in defense of privacy rights and government transparency. We concentrate on state, regional and local matters, while advocating with other like-minded organizations at the national level.

We applied for and obtained a grant from the Rose Foundation to hire a part-time fellow to aid us in our work and help us expand its scope. The fellowship begins on October 31st, 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter for a duration of one year. Compensation is $1000/month for 40-45 hours per month.


This is a unique opportunity to do hands-on implementation of enhanced privacy rights and enact social change beyond research and white papers.

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License Plate Readers, Shotspotter Gunshot Detection, Video Surveillance

Freeway Shootings Increased After Millions Spent on Freeway Surveillance

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The Freeway Security Network was established to reduce freeway shootings after a number of high profile freeway shootings on Interstate 80 and Highway 4 in 2016, with $3.5 million from the California State Transportation Agency. However the number of freeway shootings actually increased after the system was in place.

By October 2019, the Freeway Security Network was operating with 24 surveillance cameras, 165 Shotspotter microphones, and 32 automated license plate readers (ALPRs) installed along State Highway 4 and Interstate 80.

Four Vigilant Solutions automated license plate readers on eastbound Interstate 80

As part of the Memorandum of Understanding establishing the Freeway Security Network, the CHP is required to submit an annual fiscal report documenting “the productivity of the Freeway Security Network in the investigation of freeway shootings, the recovery of felony vehicles, in Amber Alerts, in outside assists in criminal investigations and all other relevant data.”

To date, only one report has been submitted by the CHP to the California State Transportation Agency. The report shows that freeway shootings have actually increased since the Freeway Security Network became operational. According to the report, there were eight freeway shootings each in 2018 and 2019, but in just the first half of 2020, the number of freeway shootings increased to 14.

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