City officials so far withholding proposed revisions as advocates push for more input, disclosure
A hard-won ordinance that brought oversight to San Diego’s many surveillance technologies needs critical fixes, officials say, or day-to-day operations the city relies on could come to a standstill.
Once the review process did get underway, it was work-heavy and time consuming. So far, only one of the city’s more than 300 technologies — the police department’sSince the ordinance requires all technologies to be reviewed before any contracts are renewed, officials say numerous city agreements could very well lapse in the near future.
The item is informational, which means no action will be taken. Instead, officials hopes it will spark a dialogue about how to best move forward. He said the City Council’s oversight of the many technologies is meant to ensure surveillance is conducted in a manner that protects people’s rights and liberties.
Back in July, when council members voted to give the city three more years to comply with the law’s mandates, plenty of concerns arose. Some questioned whether the city would have enough time to fulfill the ordinance’s mandates — even after the extension. Even before the law was passed, the City Attorney’s Office in 2020 noted issues that could arise, including its broad definition of surveillance, the number of meetings the city would be required to hold and potential conflicts between the law and contracting obligations.
Tops among their concerns is a provision that requires any technology that would be paid for with grants to make its way through the surveillance-law evaluation before the grant application is even filed, they said.Capt. Jeff Jordon said the police department recently missed out on a slice of the Organized Retail Theft Grant, which provided nearly $270,000 to agencies across the state so they could better respond to organized retail crime.
Every year, the city applies for funding under the Urban Area Security Initiative to fight or respond to terrorism. The fire department has relied on the funds for years to pay for everything from infrared camera systems for firefighting aircraft to bomb squad robots.
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