The San Diego City Council approved new policies for the continued use of 54 existing surveillance use policies policies by law enforcement on Tuesday night, after hours of public comment and discussion.
In approving the new policies, the council enabled the San Diego Police Department to continue use of the technology under its current contract to use Flock Safety.
The council voted on the use policy for Smart Streetlights and the more controversial Automated License Plate Readers, or ALPRs. Both passed, with the policy for APLRs passing 5-3. Councilmembers Sean Elo-Rivera and Henry Foster III voted against, and Councilmember Jennifer Campbell abstained.
The vote took place after hours of public comment and more than two hours of discussion by San Diego City Council members, during which they asked for clarifying information from the city attorney, the chief information security officer, the purchasing and contracting director, and a representative of Flock Safety.
The council chamber overflowed with members of the public who shared impassioned arguments for and against the technology. The larger share of comments urged council members to vote no, with many concerned that the data could not be safeguarded against federal government access for immigration enforcement.
It was the first time City Council voted on the use of the technology since the TRUST Ordinance was put in place more than three years ago. The ordinance seeks to protect civil rights and liberties, and requires the City Council and the Privacy Advisory Board — a community oversight board — to annually re-certify San Diego’s surveillance technologies.
The San Diego Police Department shared how they have worked with the Privacy Advisory Board over a period of months to strengthen oversight of the ALPR system by expanding auditing, improving public reporting, and tightening data sharing rules.
“Those changes were not symbolic. They directly addressed concerns raised by residents and by this council,” said Scott Wahl, San Diego’s Chief of Police.
The police department said that concerns over the federal government accessing the data have been taken seriously. State law prohibits ALPR data from being shared with federal agencies, and the department said that its own policy has been updated to reinforce that.
Noting that the police department is understaffed, the police department said that the ALPR system serves as a “force multiplier” by enabling “precision-based policing.”
A representative from the TRUST-SD Coalition – which stands for Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology San Diego – said that independent security researchers have demonstrated several of Flock’s own claims about security on their website to be false.
“The problem is redactions, secrecy, and the dismissal of investigative research documenting Flock’s myriad misuses,” said the coalition representative.
Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said she has to “weigh public safety in many, many scales here.” She said: “We do face threats from this federal government…. We face threats in our own communities, though, too.”
She noted that San Diego now has requirements that are more stringent than California law under SB 34, and that if a federal agency requests data through a warrant it would need to get a California warrant in order for the data-sharing to be approved.
Councilmember Foster asked
Wahl about the safety of the system’s data and accountability, particularly a data breach that occurred when the system was first installed.
“It was an honest mistake in setting up a new technology,” said Wahl. “The auditing system worked and corrected it in the initial stages of setup.”
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said that he did not think Flock technology was safe in the context of the current federal administration. “One of the most dangerous things that we can do when we’re charged with the responsibility of protecting others is telling someone that they’re safe when we can’t actually make that promise,” he said.
Councilmember Raul Campillo said that people use their smartphones that track locations and that data can be handed over to the federal government with a warrant.
“This use policy before us offers more data protection than practically anyone in this room, for or against, uses in their own lives,” he said.
Councilmember Pro Tem Kent Lee said that “the fear that people have is real, and we can’t ignore that.” He noted that a large part of the conversation was focused specifically on Flock Safety, and suggested starting the bidding process for the new contract as soon as next year.
