MORGANTOWN, W.Va. \u2014 An adjustment to Morgantown City Code on regulations for surveillance technology on city property will move forward after approval by the city council.<\/p>\n
The Morgantown City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that would prohibit Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), technology with facial surveillance or surveillance systems on city property, pending council approval during their regular meeting Tuesday. Kay, Casto, and Chaney attorney representing the city Ryan Simonton, presented details on the ordinance that was brought forward for proposal with the help of select members of the council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ordinance amends or adds three articles to the code,\u201d said Simonton. \u201cArticle 115 regulates city property and where these systems can be placed, 116 regulates face surveillance, and 117 regulates surveillance technology generally by establishing a process for the council to hold a hearing and approve a use policy.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Simonton, the ordinance will consist of three articles of city code that focus on the use of surveillance technology on city property. Along with the limitations of what technology can be used for security on city property, a separate article adds prohibitions for city employees or officials to use such technology unless formally approved by the council in a public process. Any proposals subject to council approval would require a use policy that would define requirements for access, audit trail, data sharing, and data destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAspects of Article 116 on face surveillance are mandatory in this ordinance, in the original version, were established requirements, but they could be varied by council approval under Article 117,\u201d said Simonton.<\/p>\n
The process would only apply to real-time use with exceptions for non-real-time investigative purposes.<\/p>\n
The ordinance was originally proposed by Second Ward Councilor M. Joe Abu-Ghannam and was developed with the help of Simonton, select members of council, and city staff. Deputy Mayor and Sixth Ward Councilor Mark Downs was among those who were involved in the creation of the proposal, which included a review of policy that could be applied on a state level based on laws regarding surveillance technology. Aspects involving investigations and limits regarding private property and other government agencies that were also included in the ordinance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy to have worked with Councilor Abu-Ghannam on this, and for me, this ordinance was about trust, privacy, and accountability,\u201d said Downs. \u201cFor me as a policymaker, they\u2019re incredibly valuable, and having the opportunity to codify something that represents those three things is extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ordinance was passed on first reading with several members of the Morgantown community who have been vocal about ALPR use within city limits in attendance of Tuesday\u2019s meeting. The concerns over Flock Safety camera abuses reported in various parts of the United States that were also affirmed by independent law enforcement experts were pointed out during various public portions of meetings that have taken place over the past few months. Issues that the council also felt were needed to take action on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely appreciate members of the community who have taken this up and brought it to us, as well as Councilor Abu-Ghannam and Councilor Downs, who have worked so diligently with staff to get to where this is today,\u201d said Trumble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORGANTOWN, W.Va. \u2014 An adjustment to Morgantown City Code on regulations for surveillance technology on city property will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-325389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}