surveillance

With a deadline looming, Boston City Council members gave reluctant approval to a report detailing the use of various kinds of surveillance technologies by the Boston Police Department (BPD) and other city departments.

Last year, the Boston City Council passed a sweeping law aimed at reining in surveillance practices by the Boston Police Department and other city agencies.

After more than 100 white supremacists gathered in Boston and marched through the city over Independence Day weekend, city and law enforcement officials said they “did not have intelligence” that the nationally-known Patriot Front group was coming to the Hub — despite paying a government contractor with CIA ties millions of dollars for exactly that kind of information.

In line with its “Press Pause on Face Surveillance” campaign, the ACLU of Massachusetts gave testimony at a hearing Nov. 23 for the state Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of bills moving through the Massachusetts legislature that would limit use of facial recognition technology.

After years of activism by civil rights groups, the Boston City Council passed an ordinance unanimously last week that increases transparency on police use of surveillance technology.

Massachusetts is seeking 25 “thought leaders” to help create artificial intelligence policy for the state. But despite widespread criticism of AI developments regarding racial bias and surveillance concerns, state leaders and administrators are not saying who those people are. That lack of transparency, according to civil liberties advocates, presents major problems.

The city of Boston has filed a request for proposals to expand video surveillance use for police departments in nine area cities, on behalf of a nine-city regional security coalition.