Big Brother is Watching
By Mike Rhodes

The video surveillance issue will be discussed on Tuesday, August 22 at 3:15 PM at the Fresno City Council meeting at City Hall, 2600 Fresno Street. The Fresno Police Department (FPD) will ask the City Council to adopt a policy manual for the use of the video equipment. Funding for this project will not be granted until the policy manual is approved.

As a member of the panel that helped write the manual, I’m encouraging community members to come out to OPPOSE the document. There are several sections of the manual that were changed, at the last minute by the FPD, that are contrary to the agreements made by the panel members.

The most critical and unacceptable sections that must be opposed are:

1. The policy manual, as re-written by the FPD, now says they will use the cameras to monitor political demonstrations. The draft written by the panel said: No cameras will have the ability to view any images of locations such as but not limited to:
. . .
A peaceful political demonstration or gathering.
. . .

The new version says:

Political demonstrations or rallies of a controversial nature may be actively monitored only for potentially criminal activities or in the event of a riot.

2. There is no oversight (other than the FPD) to monitor the project. The panel, at our last meeting on July 27, directed Captain Maroney to include language in the policy manual that gave someone outside of the police department the ability to look at the operation of the video surveillance project. How will we know if there is a problem or abuse taking place if only the FPD oversee their own project?

3. There is no review/evaluation process. We need to evaluate the effectiveness of the Video Policing project. Is this a good use of taxpayers money? How will we know if we don’t review this project? A section should be added that puts a trigger in place for an annual (or semi-annual) review of the project.

4. The FPD changed the language in the final draft of the policy manual to allow them to follow people (track them) around town with the video cameras without getting a warrant. If the police want to follow you around town now, they have to go to a judge and show probable cause for why they want to follow you. This is called judicial review. The new language, changed without discussion with the panel who wrote the manual, removes this judicial oversight and says all that is required is “articulable reasonable suspicion” by the camera operator to follow you around town.

For background information about this story, see:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/22/18282116.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/21/18281645.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/15/18280912.php
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/15/18280787.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/05/1825069.php

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