San Diego's community powered campaign leads to Oakland-style reforms
On November 10, 2020, the City Council of San Diego unanimously voted to approve two ordinances – one that would establish a Privacy Advisory Board inspired by Oakland, and a similar Oakland-inspired surveillance vetting framework appropriately entitled the Transparent and Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology, or TRUST. The two ordinances previously received unanimous votes in July from the Public Safety Committee and Rules Committee.
"These ordinances will help ensure that any use of surveillance technologies to protect public health and safety is proportionate, effective, and responsible. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on surveillance equipment—usually without any public debate or democratic oversight. Too many programs have moved forward without public conversation, careful consideration of the costs and benefits, or adequate polices in place to prevent misuse and protect rights. This further underscores the importance of the creation of the Privacy Advisory Board, which would have the opportunity to provide advice and technical assistance to the City of San Diego on best practices to protect resident and visitor privacy rights in connection with the City's purchase and use of surveillance equipment and other technology that collects or stores resident and visitor data. The people deserve to know when and why surveillance technology is being considered and what it is truly intended to do,” said San Diego City Council Member Monica Montgomery Steppe, sponsor of both ordinances.
Both ordinances can be found here - Items S500 and S501.
The eighth largest municipality in the country, San Diego is also a notable military and border city with a sizable technology sector, and a number of surveillance and military equipment vendors are located in close proximity.
It is no accident that San Diego looked to Oakland for inspiration – both cities rolled out city-wide surveillance technology without adequate community input or informed decision making, countless mistakes were made, and the resulting disaster created an opening for reform.
“We hear a lot about ‘law and order’ but there is nothing law-and-order about the way these mass surveillance technologies are introduced into our lives, haphazardly and without any care of how they are impacting our communities. The responsible thing to do is involve the public with a community-led process that will include community input. That is the ‘law and order’ any government must have, and practice.” Jean-Huy Tran, Director of Advocacy, We The People San Diego.
In 2013, the city of Oakland stunned the public when it presented a proposal for a $12MM citywide surveillance apparatus called the Domain Awareness Center that would include automated license plate readers, ShotSpotter, 700+ cameras, and comingled data sharing with federal and state agencies. Even though the technology was in its infancy, staff was proposing the use of facial recognition surveillance. Oakland’s timing couldn’t have been worse – the proposal became public two weeks after Edward Snowden hit the front pages of newspapers around the globe. However, the opportunity created by the public outcry led to a privacy advisory body of citizen subject matter experts, and the most robust surveillance technology vetting framework in the country.
Apparently San Diego didn’t get the memo. Declaring itself a “smart city” leader, city staff introduced in 2016 a “Smart City Streetlights” program that can only be rightfully declared a boondoggle of epic proportions. As the very many stories written by Voice of San Diego’s Jesse Marx have revealed, city staff failed to account for ongoing costs, had no clear rules for use, and the police department repeatedly misinformed the public and the City Council about their own use of the data from the streetlights.
“Let us never underestimate the power of concerned community members coming together and making change. The work started because our government and public officials failed us. The People, along with the People’s Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe, changed the direction in which Surveillance in San Diego was going – even in the face of opposition by the very officials who led us into the quagmire. Even with this win, the fight continues. We must fight to maintain the integrity of our ordinances for the sake of the People, and that’s what we commit to do.” Geneviéve Jones-Wright, Executive Director, Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (MoGo), and Secure Justice advisory member.
The mission creep has been significant. A program intended to save the city millions of dollars due to more efficient lighting will likely end up costing the taxpayers at least a few hundred thousand if not millions in cost overruns, the private entity owns the data and can repurpose if it it so chooses, the environmental and traffic metrics that were supposed to be of great use for city planning have completely failed to materialize, and the financial impact will be most felt during the pandemic-caused recession we are all facing now. Of even more concern, the police are using data collected by the Smart Streetlights to surveil First Amendment protected activity. This is what happens when there is no “mindfulness”, careful thinking about the impact of such a rollout prior to its actual implementation.
“In a time when our lives are increasingly dependent upon, and impacted by, data collection and surveillance technology, it is absolutely necessary that we have safeguards in place protecting our civil rights and privacy. This ordinance is a step towards making sure we, the community, have oversight of the technologies that influence our world. “ Khalid Alexander, Pillars of the Community.
“For decades, tech companies have been given free reign to design and deploy with little democratic oversight. People are saying that democracy also applies to technology that affects your life, not just to budgets or to who you elect. Engineers might be closest to the wires and the code, but only communities know the complex impacts of technologies.” Prof. Lilly Irani, UCSD, and part of Tech Workers Coalition.
Like Oakland, a diverse coalition of concerned citizens organized in San Diego to address these concerns, and they found an amazing champion in City Council Member Monica Montgomery Steppe to sponsor the ordinances.
“The ordinances passed today were a community driven effort to ensure the privacy rights of San Diegans are protected. The TRUST SD Coalition worked in partnership with Councilwoman Montgomery Steppe to bring forth two ordinances that will change the way the City acquires and uses surveillance technology. Representing a community that has been subjected to disproportionate surveillance, we are proud of the unanimous vote by council today.” Homayra Yusufi, Deputy Director, PANA.
The TrustSD Coalition is comprised of over thirty local organizations, most of which are small, grassroots-orgs led by community leaders and activists. By contrast, with a population of nearly 1.5 million, San Diego is the 2nd largest city in California with a robust governing structure. It is a testament to the talent, hard work and thoughtfulness of TrustSD that a people-powered coalition was able to pass such significant reforms in a city that tends to embrace policing, military and border-patrol surveillance equipment and strategies. The success of TrustSD can serve as an inspiration to people across the country who may be working towards similar reforms in their own cities.
“Today San Diegans and their City Council ousted the status quo and instead advanced new policies that will do more to protect San Diego’s citizens and visitors from the harms of mass surveillance. With the passage of these ordinances, our leaders and our citizens are in unison demanding that the future of mass surveillance be very different from the past.” Seth Hall, TechLead San Diego.
“It is in the power of the people that we must put our TRUST as we, the community, guide and lead the way on how we can protect our civil rights and privacy. Only we keep us safe. I am so proud to be a part of the TRUST SD Coalition that led this victory and worked in partnership with trusted elected official Councilwoman Monica Montgomery Steppe. TRUST SD has shown the power of the people and that with TRUST and relationships we can make change and keep each other safe.” - Dr. DJ Kuttin Kandi, Asian Solidarity Collective
“Our borderlands region is the most vulnerable because of the unending militarization by this fascist Administration. As grassroots organizers and organizations, we must continue holding the City of San Diego and neighboring cities accountable because that is the most critical civil rights umbrella issue that encompasses so many other overlapping problematic policies geared at targeting our Black and Brown siblings. We have and will sound the alarm and aim to keep shining the light on these mass surveillance practices to ensure our community’s protection and that of our democracy,” said Mejgan Afshan, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Borderlands For Equity, and a Secure Justice advisory member.
Secure Justice Executive Director Brian Hofer served as an advisor to Council Member Montgomery Steppe, and the TrustSD Coalition.
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