ACLU, mayor support oversight bill
St. Louis Alderwoman Annie Rice on Friday reintroduced Board Bill 31, a bill that would require public oversight of the government’s use of surveillance technologies — and a bill that has come before the board in one form or another for several years now.
Rice, who represents Ward 8, said the core of the bill creates a public hearing process that comes through the Board of Aldermen before the implementation of any new police surveillance technology.Â
She said the bill has failed in the past because it did not have the support of the previous mayoral administration. But St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones showed up at Saturday’s rally in support of the effort.
“So, this is yet another way to just sort of have a public understanding that does build trust in the police department, as well in the administration.”
– Alderwoman Annie Rice, Ward 8
“We deserve to have this technology regulated and accountable to the people who are being recorded,” Jones said at the rally, according to the ACLU of Missouri.
“This isn’t just about accountable technology; this is about racial equity and ensuring our Black and brown people can walk in their own neighborhoods without being recorded or mistaken for somebody else.”
Rice said this bill creates a two-way road, where the public provides input and the police department is up front with what kind of tools and technology they are using.
“This is coming at a crucial time, as we’re getting ready to roll out body cameras as well,” Rice said. “So, this is yet another way to just sort of have a public understanding that does build trust in the police department, as well as in the administration.”
The bill stipulates that these technologies be approved by the Board of Aldermen after a required public hearing before any surveillance technology may be used.
Rice noted that this is not in any way connected to the spy plane bill that failed to pass last legislative session — that bill would authorize and direct the mayor and comptroller to enter into a contract with a private company to fly surveillance airplanes up to 18 hours a day over the city in an effort to deter and solve crime. But, Rice said, that is a kind of new technology that would need to be approved by the board if her bill passes.
The ACLU of Missouri, a member of the Privacy Watch Coalition, wrote that the surveillance technologies addressed in this bill frequently target communities of color. They include things like spy planes, shot spotters, automatic license plate readers and facial and voice recognition programs.
The organization called the bill a commonsense measure that sheds light on how these technologies are used, places a system of checks on technologies and applies oversight of this emerging field to ensure police accountability.
Rice echoed that sentiment and said she’s been working with various people in the city’s public safety department — including interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom and his advisor, retired detective Sgt. Heather Taylor, who was formerly the head of the Ethical Society of Police.
“I cannot speak on any of their behalf about how they feel about it… but we are working together to make this something that really is St. Louis based,” Rice said. “This type of a bill has passed in 20 other cities across the country now, and ours is going to be based on the same principles as those bills.”
The ACLU wrote that a recent audit of the city’s surveillance technologies demonstrated that the city has spent nearly $4 million on watching its residents over the last three years with no comprehensive analysis on if the programs work and if they are discriminatory.
“Surveillance technology has been rife with abuse throughout history, especially in Black and brown communities,” Alicia Hernández, a community organizer with the ACLU of Missouri, said in a media release. “Whether the data is being sold to private companies or governments are using it to spy on residents who are in no way implicated in criminal activity the current laws do not protect you from these violations of your privacy and civil rights.”
Inez Bordeaux, of ArchCity Defenders, echoed that sentiment.
“We’re in a new era in St Louis, an era where we focus on reenvisioning public safety by investing in people and neglected communities instead of over-policing and surveilling them,” Bordeaux said. “This Board Bill is a great step in making sure the wishes of people in our communities are heard about what they do and do not want in their neighborhoods.”
The bill is co-sponsored by aldermen Jesse Todd, Bret Narayan, Bill Stephens and Dan Guenther along with alderwomen Christine Ingrassia, Anne Schweitzer, Megan Green and Tina Pihl.
