Cambridge Passes Law To Regulate Police Surveillance

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The ACLU is claiming victory after the City of Cambridge passed an ordinance requiring community control and approval and transparency over police surveillance.

“We commend the City of Cambridge for passing an ordinance that will empower residents and their local elected officials to bring community control over police surveillance,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts in a release.“Far too often, police departments across Massachusetts and the country obtain invasive, costly surveillance equipment without any meaningful transparency or oversight. This ordinance charts against that trend, requiring public engagement before the Cambridge police can acquire surveillance technology like drones and cell phone tracking devices.”

Following a City Council vote Monday night, Cambridge became the first city in the Boston area to pass surveillance oversight reform through the municipal legislature. Cambridge joins cities like Seattle, WA and Oakland, CA, which have passed strong surveillance laws requiring transparency, accountability and oversight of city surveillance technologies.

Mayor Marc McGovern praised what he described as a two year collaborative process between the City Manager’s Office, the Police Commissioner, the City Solicitor and the ACLU.

“We read daily some new infringement upon our civil rights and free exercise of democracy; this ordinance could not be more timely,” he said in the release, describing the ordinance as one that "protects our civil rights, builds institutional accountability and transparency, and considers the potential impacts to communities of color or other marginalized communities before policies are implemented.”

The ordinance mandates that surveillance technologies cannot be funded, acquired, or used without express City Council approval. City departments seeking to use a previously-acquired surveillance technology must also go through City Council.

Technologies covered under the new Cambridge ordinance include automatic license plate readers, video surveillance, biometric surveillance technology including facial and voice recognition software and databases, social media monitoring software, police body-worn cameras, predictive policing software.

And in an effort to make sure there's transparency, the police or other City department seeking to use the surveillance technology must report on the technology to be acquired, its capabilities, how precisely it would be used, how its data would be preserved and protected, its acquisition and operational costs, and how potential adverse impacts on civil rights and civil liberties will be prevented. The idea is that all that information will be made public before Council meeting where it will be discussed. The new law also requires ongoing reporting to the council and the public about how city departments, including the police, use the surveillance tools.

“The City of Cambridge is deeply committed to balancing the public’s right to privacy with the City’s need to promote and ensure our resident’s safety and security” said Cambridge City Manager Louis DePasquale.

The police commissioner was also on board.

“The Surveillance Ordinance creates the type of transparency and protocols we strive to deliver as we seek to further enhance the safety of our residents, while protecting people’s civil rights and civil liberties," said Cambridge Police Commissioner Branville G. Bard, Jr. in the release.

In September 2016, the ACLU began a nationwide effort to pass laws that ensure residents – through their local elected officials – are empowered to decide if and how surveillance technologies are used. Since then laws have been secured in 12 jurisdictions and local efforts have sprouted up in more than 30 cities. Maine and California have sponsored statewide legislation.

Last year, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone signed an executive policy requiring a multi-step process before new surveillance technology may be purchased and deployed in the city.

In September, the Lawrence City Council passed a similar law requiring council oversight of law enforcement and other City agency surveillance.

The ACLU and allied organizations are advocating for such laws in Brookline and Worcester.

“This victory is the culmination of two years of work,” said Kade Crockford, director of the ACLU of Massachusetts’ Technology for Library program. "Cambridge has demonstrated that it is a model for other local governments by embracing the call to ensure that new surveillance technologies are only adopted and used in accordance with the people’s will.”

Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff