Update on police spying

Let's see, where are we? You already know the SCPD was caught spying on the New Years parade planning meetings in private homes for three months late last year. And if you were following it, you know the city council reversed their previous position in late May and agreed to work with the ACLU to limit police power and create a policy that protected people first amendment rights. This only after both the Santa Cruz police auditor and the Northern California ACLU got directly involved and insisted that such a policy was needed (and in spite of the assurances by the city attorney, the city manager, and the police chief that everything was fine and no new policy was needed). We even went so far as to provide a draft policy for Santa Cruz based on the first amendment policy of the San Francisco PD.

That's where we left it almost a month ago, trusting that the city council and city managers would make good faith attempts to put a strong policy together with the help of the Northern California ACLU.

So what has happened behind the scenes so far? Not a thing. The first meeting with the ACLU was postponed and rescheduled by the city. Then the second meeting was again canceled by the city. ACLU attorneys have made themselves available to meet, or by conference call, but still nothing has happened. So much for good faith.

In the meantime, the SCPD is still free to infiltrating community and political groups. What pressure will we have to leverage against the city to get them to put a leash on their watchdog?