A tough time for police powers
With Trump in power, civil liberties are top of mind again.
Donald Trump is making it very hard for police departments in liberal cities to ask for enhanced surveillance powers.
Yesterday several City Council members signaled opposition to APD's automatic license reader program, citing concerns that the data could be used to crack down on immigrants, abortion rights and the many forms of free speech that have recently become deportable offenses.
Their comments came after several dozen people showed up at Council to speak against the technology.
In apparent recognition that the votes weren't there, City Manager T.C. Broadnax has withdrawn a proposed extension of the ALPR program, which has been operating as a pilot for the past 12 months.
"Given concerns expressed today, I have decided to withdraw this item from the agenda at this time to provide more opportunities to address council members’ questions and do our due diligence to alleviate concerns prior to bringing this item back to City Council for consideration," he said in an email to Council.
That means that APD will stop using the technology on June 30, when the current contract with vendor Flock Safety ends. I am told that Broadnax will likely come back to Council with a new proposed vendor and contract in 4-6 months.
Austin's on-again off-again relationship with surveillance tech
APD used ALPRs for many years but Council ended their use in the heady days of 2020 as part of its ambitious (but later largely aborted) effort to "reimagine public safety."
Amidst a post-pandemic spike in crime, Council voted in 2022 to revive the use of ALPRs, but demanded that APD put in place strict protocols about how the data collected from the technology could be used. Among other things, APD agreed to only store the data for seven days and to limit the use of ALPR data to the investigation of auto theft and a number of other serious crimes, including murder and human trafficking.
But in the era of Trumpian and Paxtonian repression, a police chief's pledge to only use data for serious crime is cold comfort for elected officials who believe in civil liberties and due process.
"We are in a new political reality," said CM Mike Siegel.
