PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Surveillance technology can be an important public safety tool, and currently, a group of people are pushing the City of Portland to be more transparent with how that technology is used.
Portland City Council passed this binding resolution that would force the city to publicly document the surveillance tools it uses and have every city bureau create a statement on the impact of those technologies.
For example, the public doesn’t know exactly how many cameras there are in the city or what their stated purpose is. People can report cameras they see to different sites, but the city isn’t required to release that data right now.
The decision from the council comes as the result of a push from dozens of local and national citizen groups — some of them had pushed for the successful ban of facial recognition technology in the city.
This resolution also requires the city to put forward an ordinance that would require a more democratic process requiring input from communities, where surveillance technology, such as gunshot detection, could be installed.
“We should have the right to know who the bureaus are sharing data with. We should have the right to know what Parking Kitty does with my dang phone number. Most importantly, we should have the right to know what is happening so we can have an informed conversation with lawmakers about surveillance and we can’t do that right now,” said Shawn Patrick, who spoke in favor of the resolution.
Lia Holland, with Fight for the Future, said she is concerned about more emerging technologies cities like Portland can use, such as automatic license plate recognition or gunshot detection technology.
Critics also contend the lack of transparency raises privacy concerns for people seeking abortions or gender-affirming care in Portland.
“We need to be thinking more about all the ways in which out-of-state law enforcement or individual vigilantes like from states like Texas could be using the data that our city is collecting in order to punish and prosecute people who are just looking to get health care,” she said.
This resolution also requires the city to disclose how data is stored and, if it’s shared with any other organization, how and why that data is shared.