Coalition calls for community supervision of police surveillance technology

By Alexandria Staubach
 
An advocacy coalition today called on Milwaukee’s Common Council to adopt and implement a Community Control Over Police Surveillance ordinance.
 
Already adopted in 26 cities throughout the nation, CCOPS ordinances are designed to ensure that people living in municipalities have a meaningful opportunity to participate in decisions on the purchase and use of surveillance technologies. Cities that have adopted a CCOPS ordinance include Madison, Wisconsin; St. Louis, Missouri; and Detroit, Michigan.
 
The ordinance would not ban the use of surveillance technology. Instead, the ordinance is “a mechanism to democratize the decision-making process surrounding Milwaukeeans’ personal privacy and surveillance and to ensure transparency and accountability in programs funded or administered by local government," the coalition's letter to the Common Council said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin leads the coalition. Wisconsin Justice Initiative is a member, as are the Milwaukee Turners and Black Leaders Organizing for Communities organizations.
 
"Law enforcement surveillance should always be the exception, and never the norm,” said WJI President Craig Johnson regarding CCOPS and the coalition's letter.
 
“As new and more surveillance technologies emerge, WJI believes the people of Milwaukee deserve full transparency as to the means, methods, and costs associated with police surveillance. Excessive surveillance can negatively impact the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens," Johnson said.
 
"CCOPS is a critical tool for revealing information about how and when law enforcement surveils us and shifting power back to the community,” Milwaukee Turners’ Executive Director Emilio De Torre told WJI.
 
“That information, and that decision, belong to the public—both because we are the ones being surveilled and because it is paid for by our taxpayer dollars,” said De Torre.  
 
The model ordinance takes a three-pronged approach to ensure community control over the adoption and implementation of surveillance technologies.
 
First, it would require a public hearing and approval of the Common Council before any municipal entity funds, acquires, or uses new or existing surveillance technology. “This gives community members and elected officials the opportunity to discuss the risks and alleged benefits of these technologies, instead of law enforcement making these decisions unilaterally and in secret,” the coalition letter says.
 
Second, law enforcement operating in Milwaukee would be required to prepare an annual report to the Common Council on each form of surveillance technology used in the city and whether that information was shared with external parties. The report would include law enforcement’s summary of complaints received about the surveillance technology and a geographical breakdown of where the technology was used.
 
Third, the ordinance would establish a community advisory committee on surveillance.
 
“In recent years, we’ve seen states impose bans and criminal penalties for seeking reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care; we’ve seen state and local law enforcement officials enforce immigrant deportation schemes; and we’ve seen surveillance used to suppress free speech and intimidate leaders of political movements,” wrote the coalition. “(L)ocal police departments and their surveillance mechanisms will likely target individuals seeking or providing these services,” the letter warned.
 
The letter noted that U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement is known to use mass location surveillance data collected on the local level to target individuals for investigation and that without “robust oversight,” law enforcement use of surveillance technology would risk regressing to a time when “surveillance was used to suppress political dissent and target minority groups.”
 
“At a minimum, people who live, work, visit, or attend school in Milwaukee deserve to know if and how they’re being surveilled and who has access to that surveillance data,” the coalition wrote. CCOPS guidelines also will help build trust between police and the communities they serve, the letter said.
 
“Now, more than ever, we need to have community involvement and transparency with surveillance technology. We have seen surveillance technology be used and weaponized against organizations, protesters, and racial profiling,” BLOC Executive Director Angela Lang told WJI. “Listening to people directly impacted is important and leads to further context about why this is harmful for us all,” she said.
 
When asked why the Turners joined the coalition, De Torre said his organization remains “in opposition to the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement, and we see CCOPS coexisting with, and contributing to, restrictions on increases in surveillance technology."
 
The coalition consists of ACLU of Wisconsin, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Com Force MKE LLC, The Difference Principle, Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing, Fair Wisconsin, League of Women Voters Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Milwaukee Turners, NAACP Milwaukee Branch, National Lawyers Guild–Milwaukee, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera Action, WAVE Educational Fund, Wisconsin Council of Churches, Wisconsin Justice Initiative, Wisconsin Muslim Civic Alliance, and Zao MKE Church.

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