In a community conversation Wednesday night, residents expressed strong objections to Berkeley’s proposed expansion of surveillance technologies, which is up for approval by the City Council in its regular meeting this Tuesday.
During the meeting, the Berkeley Police Department presented on the suggested public safety technologies, with community members posing questions in response.
“We heard a great presentation on the benefits of this technology, but we are curious to what extent the police department has really investigated the harms,” said a public commenter.
The proposed technologies include the contract renewal of automatic license plate readers, the implementation of the Drone as First Responder program and the integration of community video streams.
Multiple residents raised privacy concerns about the technologies, and several speakers also expressed concern about federal agencies accessing the automatic license plate reader data.
Arlo Malmberg, city strategic planning and accountability manager, noted during the meeting that the contract with Flock Safety was modified to align with Berkeley’s sanctuary city ordinance and values, and the company accepted “every single edit.”
One attendee warned against Berkeley devolving into “a police state,” while another public commenter compared entering a contract with Flock to “getting into a relationship with a known abuser.”
“(Flock) being convenient and having one central network doesn’t feel like a good enough reason to put community members at risk of being detained or deported,” one public commenter said.
Rosa Bay, co-deputy director of the East Bay Community Law Center, expressed concern that Berkeley’s continued investment in Flock contrasts with “the values that it espouses around being a sanctuary city.”
During the presentation, BPD Chief Jennifer Louis emphasized the benefits of Flock Safety, particularly its centralization of data into a single “ecosystem.” Louis additionally noted the high quality of Flock cameras and the fiscal advantage the network provides.
Many participants also questioned the urgency of adopting Flock, citing the more than 30 jurisdictions that have paused or terminated their contracts with the company.
“What calculus is Berkeley making that is somehow different than all of these other jurisdictions and city attorneys and police departments, who are saying that this technology is not worth the risk?” a public commenter asked.