Privacy

With great power comes great responsibility

As infringements upon our expectations of privacy become ever easier for those entrusted with tools of government, the need for radical transparency and accountability becomes crucial. These cameras that the Council have authorized in the last years have popped up all over the city; presumably, for the use by law enforcement in solving crimes. These have been installed without proper oversight and transparency, and it appears that the number of intersections being surveilled continues to increase to this day.

We do not need a surveillance society in miniature here in Concord.  The “why do you care if you have nothing to hide” argument just doesn’t fly – we should be free of government surveillance as a general principle, with exceptions only under rare circumstances and with strict scrutiny.  Many nearby jurisdictions installed these cameras – the very same model, in some (many?) cases – at around the same time.  That wasn’t coincidence.  I want all of the behind-the-scenes correspondences to be made public.  Agreements with other agencies (e.g., state/federal) to provide back-door access to the cameras need to be made available.  As we’re seeing implemented in other areas, license-plate reading features have apparently been added. Are facial-recognition features next? Are our movements being tracked and databased without our knowledge and consent — we know that Google and Apple can easily do that with our phones, but is our own City government preventing us from ever “opting out” of being surveilled without our consent? Are federal or other agencies accessing these cameras without proper oversight (to be clear, “improper” use would consist of anything that the public have not consented to).

Members of the public should be on a panel that oversees every access of any of the cameras, and the public should have access to a maintained log of *every* access of the surveillance system (that is, if we do decide to keep the cameras only after a compelling public-safety argument is made).

I have not seen any importance given by our Council members to preserve our privacy in matters of government. I will open up the operations of government and will inform/educate the residents of Concord to any encroachments upon their expectations of privacy.