View source for Surveillance Study Committee - Jun 6th, 2018

Adam Chapdelaine wasn't able to attend this meeting.  There was
representation from town IT, APD, the facilities department, the human
rights commission, and citizen members.  Town Counsel wasn't able to
attend, but provided a memorandum on the legal landscape affecting the
use of surveillance equipment.

Sayed (IT) provided an inventory of town-owned surveillance cameras:

* Treasurer's office: 12 
* Robbins Library: 16
* Central School: 5
* Highland Fire Station
* Park Ave. Fire Station
* Police Headquarters: 18
* Arlington High School: 29
* Veteran's Memorial Rink: 12
* Gibbs School (under construction)

Most sites have a mix of internal and external cameras.  The lack of a
number means that we know cameras are installed, but don't (yet) know
how many.  The DPW yard has security cameras, but these were never
activated.

No audio recording takes place in the treasurer's office.  The cameras
are equipped with microphones, but the microphones were never hooked
up.  David Good says it's common for installers to leave audio feeds
disconnected out of concern for Massachusetts wiretap laws.

Sayed states that most departments follow a 30-day retention schedule,
because that's what they have capacity to store.  There's not a
town-wide retention policy.

Do we know when these cameras were installed?

APD installed its first cameras in 2008.  Additional cameras were
installed in 2016, when the public safety building was renovated.  APD
has signs to alert people that video recording is taking place.  Not
all departments do this.

The oldest camera installations are probably those in the treasurer's
office and Robbin's library.  Security cameras were added to the
Central Fire Station when it was renovated.

The Veteran's Rink cameras were installed around five years ago.  Some
are interior and some are exterior.

The town has standardized on Avigilon surveillance equipment (see
http://avigilon.com/products/).  American Alarm provides
installation and maintenance.

All town cameras passively record footage.  Town cameras are not
actively monitored.

Is the camera footage a public record?  Meeting attendees were not
sure.  The Police or District Attorney can ask for (and obtain) copies
of camera footage.  We're not sure about anyone else.

David Good reports that he's only received video requests from the
police department, and from the school resource officer.

(Would be useful to review the Massachusetts Wiretap Statute, and see
what kind of distinction, if any, is made between audio and video
recordings).

Next, the group discussions sample ordinances.  We have one from
Somerville, one from San Francisco, and one from Berkeley, CA.

The Berkeley ordinance categorizes body cameras as surveillance
equipment; the Somerville ordinance excludes them.  Both Berkeley and
Somerville exempt cameras installed in public buildings.  Somerville
exempts traffic cameras.  

There's debate as to whether these policies are trying to draw a
distinction between surveillance and security.  The group comes to a
rough agreement that we'll need definitions for things like
surveillance, surveillance equipment, and security equipment.  Is
security a lock on a door, or a camera watching the door.?  What
assets are being protected (e.g., people, the contents of a building,
or the building itself)?

What about retention periods?  A camera used for security might
require a shorter retention period than one used for surveillance.

Intent is a very important element of this discussion.  What equipment
will be used, where will it be used, why will it be used, how will it
be used, and who will have access to the data?

Somerville's policy requires a plan for public notifications.  The
policy, however, omits a requirement that the public notification plan
be carried out.

In Arlington, town meeting might be too unwieldy a forum for public
notifications -- there are only a couple of town meetings per year.
Select Board meetings are probably a better place.

Different departments are likely to have different requirements for
security and the use of surveillance equipment.  The police department
may fall into a separate category than the rest of the town.

New camera acquisitions typically have to go through the purchasing
and IT departments.

How do cameras affect teachers and students?  There's a fair amount of
case law that says students have few rights while in school (i.e., it
would be difficult for a student to, say, claim that a camera invaded
their privacy).  What kind of rights to teachers have in this area?

The San Francisco camera ordinance explicitly exempts cameras in
schools.  Somerville's ordinance doesn't mention schools, but they
exempt cameras in public buildings.  Presumably schools are considered
public buildings.

The use of cameras in public buildings could be affected by collective
bargaining agreements.  We don't know if this is the case, though.

Regardless of whether the equipment is used for surveillance or
security, there should still be policies (but the policies can be
different).

Would Somerville's policy be viable in Arlington?  Could it work with
Arlington's form of town government?  We'd need Town Counsel to answer
this question.  It would be very helpful to know what we can and
cannot do here.  Also, if the word "school" appeared in Somerville's
policy, what impact would that have.

Our APD representative provides some information on ALPRs.  APD asked
other municipalities about their use of ALPR systems, and most of the
feedback was negative.  It's hard to get an ALPR system to run
smoothly without in-house IT staff.  Many police departments think
they're a technological nightmare.  APD doesn't want to engage in
"gotcha" style policing.  It may be useful to (say) find individuals
with unpaid motor vehicle registrations, but those are generally
low-income individual.  APD has decided not to purchase an ALPR.

The group assigns itself several tasks for homework:

* Try to come up with definitions of security, surveillance equipment, and such.  In order to come up with a policy, we need to be able to say what's in scope and what's out of scope.
* Review the memorandum from Town Counsel

We will use a Doodle Poll to select our next meeting date.  The group
would like to chose a time where Town Counsel is available.


[[Category:Public Meetings]]