A major milestone was reached in Oakland at 9:21 PM on May 9th. The Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to have the full City Council consider a first of its kind Surveillance Equipment Regulation Ordinance. (Read more about what the ordinance will do.) If and hopefully when it is passed by the full Council Oakland will be the first City in California, and, with the possible exception of Seattle, the nation, to pass such a set of restrictions on the use of surveillance equipment.
Sweating the details to create the ordinance was the Oakland Privacy Advisory Committee, with public support driven by Oakland Privacy (nee the Occupy Oakland Privacy Working Group), the ACLU, which released a statement about the vote, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
What began with the massive surveillance system known as the Domain Awareness Center becoming exposed to the public in July of 2013 – after having been secret for years – has now almost come full circle to an ordinance that requires presentations to the public and public input before any surveillance equipment or software is proposed for acquisition.
A collection of tweets after the motion was passed on May 9th:
All the people #ftw #hellaprivacy #Oakland pub safety passes model legislation to stop secret surveillance pic.twitter.com/lBH72ano2F
— Tessa D’Arcangelew (@TesSassarara) May 10, 2017
Proposed Oakland surveillance law would bar city from signing non-disclosure agreements, like thosed used by FBI. pic.twitter.com/0dJxYjyPsi
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) May 10, 2017
#oakmtg Surveillance Equipment Regulation Ordinance passes the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee by consensus at 9:21 PM, May 9.
— JP Massar (@jpmassar) May 10, 2017
Tonight Public Safety Comm. approved Surveillance & Community Safety Ordinance strengthening privacy rights for Oakland residents. #oakmtg
— Abel Guillen (@Abel_Guillen) May 10, 2017
People lined up to speak in favor of #hellaprivacy @b_haddy @OaklandPrivacy @CAIRSFBA @EFF @ACLU_NorCal @PeoplePower pic.twitter.com/08of7Pfhuq
— Tessa D’Arcangelew (@TesSassarara) May 10, 2017
Thank you Brian Hofer!!! #outstanding #impressive https://t.co/xdkN08rKrU
— Domain Awareness (@domainawareness) May 10, 2017
Here is a piece on Oakland surveillance from 2013 by stellar local journalists @awinston & @DarwinBondGraha. #oakmtg https://t.co/ygK8ozFMFv
— Oakland Privacy (@OaklandPrivacy) May 10, 2017
Fantastic work, Oakland #privacy activists! Standing ovation!
— Seattle Privacy (@SeattlePrivacy) May 10, 2017
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