PDX: Demand oversight of surveillance tech!

Right now, there is no legal framework of any kind to guide or limit the way the city of Portland, Oregon uses surveillance technology or the way that it collects and handles the resulting data. At the same time, Portland has quietly become the 9th-most-surveilled city in the United States.

Portland City Commissioners can change this, starting with a key vote on a surveillance resolution on February 1st. Residents of the Portland, OR Metro Area should sign on now to have their voice heard on the need for democratic oversight of surveillance tech in Portland!

Sign the Petition

Thanks for signing the petition!

Please consider sharing this page with your friends and family.

Share Donate

The petition reads:

Dear Mayor Wheeler and Portland City Commissioners:

Portland has quietly become the 9th-most-surveilled city in the United States, per-capita. (Sources below.)

At the same time, the city government currently maintains no legal structure to manage this large and growing network of surveillance technologies and data collection. Most disturbingly, this system remains opaque to analysis and devoid of democratic oversight.

Because personal privacy is necessary to human dignity and is an essential component of a healthy, functioning democracy, this state of affairs is a risk to our democracy and a threat to the civil and human rights of all Portlanders.

To address this issue, I call on the Portland City Council to adopt the proposed Surveillance Technologies Policy resolution prepared by Smart City PDX and the Office of Equity and Human Rights. This resolution will ensure transparency through the full accounting of all surveillance technologies in use by city bureaus, analyze the impact of Automated Decision Systems, and require the implementation of privacy impact assessments whenever surveillance technologies are proposed or implemented.

But you must not stop there.

While this resolution is an important first step toward accountability, Portland is in immediate need of a strong surveillance ordinance that enshrines legally-empowered, citizen oversight of surveillance technologies into law. I urge you to develop this ordinance, with urgency, using the extensive public feedback that Smart City PDX and the Office of Equity and Human Rights have gathered throughout the past year, and then enact this ordinance without delay.

The reality is that, in spite of any possible benefits, surveillance systems and strategies lead to negative consequences as well. The chilled expression of free speech, reduced civil participation in constitutionally-protected association and assembly, and the potential for racial, socioeconomic, and algorithmic bias are all significant issues. In addition, in the absence of democratic oversight, the potential for these systems to be used abusively, and outside of their intended purposes, will remain a clear danger.

I want to see a future in Portland that respects and addresses these issues and where local communities play a significant and meaningful role in determining if and how surveillance technologies are funded, acquired, and used. After all, democratic oversight is the cornerstone of trustworthy, effective government.

I thank you for the work you have done in the past to protect the privacy of Portland residents and visitors, and I urge you to affirm your commitment to the principles of good governance by passing the Surveillance Technologies Policy resolution now and then urgently developing a powerful surveillance ordinance that will protect the dignity and civil liberties of all Portlanders and our guests.

Sincerely,
Name of Petition Signer

SOURCES: