Turn Out & Testify On Surveillance, 2pm Apr 17 Cambridge City Hall!

Please mark your calendars to come out and testify in support of community control over police surveillance!

WHAT: Public Safety Committee Hearing on Surveillance Technology Ordinance
WHERE: Cambridge City Council, Cambridge City Hall
WHEN: April 17, 2pm

If you can come, please email us at: digitalfourth@protonmail.com.

We’ll post some suggested talking points as we get closer to the date of the hearing, and a link to the City’s draft ordinance text if available.

We’ve been organizing in Cambridge for nearly two years, towards the goal of passing a surveillance oversight ordinance. We’re partnering with the ACLU of Massachusetts. We are following in the footsteps of communities like Santa Clara County, Berkeley and Davis in California, which have ordinances on the books requiring city agencies—including the police—to go through a transparent, public process before acquiring new surveillance technologies. Crucially, these ordinances require the city council to approve or deny requests, as well as to approve or deny policies to govern the use of any approved technologies. The ordinances also require that city agencies report back to the council (and the public) about how they use any approved technologies, and have meaningful enforcement provisions.

Surveillance often targets the most oppressed people: people of color, immigrants, and Muslims. It often targets activists, or anyone who disagrees with the status quo. Unrestricted, secret surveillance is a racial justice issue, a social justice issue, and a Fourth Amendment issue.

Let’s make sure Massachusetts communities chart a different path from the dangerous one our nation is heading down. Our work in Cambridge is one of five active campaigns in the Boston area (Arlington, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville); get in touch to get involved!

Looking forward to seeing you on April 17 to send a strong message to the Committee: Cambridge supports community control over police surveillance!

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