Speaker 1: The ayes have it. The docket has passed. Madam Clerk, moving right along to docket 0397.
Speaker 0: Docket 0397, the Committee on Government Operations, to which is referred on March 3rd, 2021. Docket number 0397. An Ordinance on surveillance, oversight and Information Sharing.
Speaker 1: Thank you. The chair now recognizes Councilor Lydia Edwards, chair of the Committee on Government Operations. Chair Edwards, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much. I want to note that the committee report is 12 pages long. I'm not going to read that. You're welcome. And what I am going to do is hit the highlights. And I just wanted to note to many people what it took for us to get here. It's well over two calendar years of this introduction and discussion, the oversight and surveillance, as well as at least two or three hearings. And I want to say almost four, four working sessions averaging 2 to 3 hours, the longest one being 4 hours long. What that means is we took this very seriously. We understand the impact of this and we want nothing more than folks to understand we when it comes to the surveillance of the everyday people of Boston. We at the city council take that very seriously. And that's all this is doing. This is about civil liberties. This is about transparency. This is about government acknowledging what it's using tools, surveillance, technology in order to watch all of us. That's it. And what it also does is make sure that if there is a new technology that comes out.
Speaker 4: That we would be aware.
Speaker 2: That the government will be transparent about what it's using to watch us or to police us. We go to the city council and we go through a task force and we go through many different hands to make sure before it goes to the hands of our law enforcement officers, or if there is any point that it goes to our hands and we would know about it. This is not about stopping policing. This is not about preventing people, our government, from responding in an emergency. This is about knowing how our government is functioning with our tax dollars. So some highlights. This legislation establishes standards, again, for surveillance, oversight and information sharing. The docket requires community involvement. When surveillance is used and when the city acquires surveillance technology, it limits information sharing between VIPs, Boston Public Schools and the Boston Police Department. The legislation requires that the mayor establish a surveillance use policy and that city departments in the city council approves that policy. I want to thank David Ingles, Chief of Information Officer of Do It. Gregory McCarthy Chief Information Security Officer of Do It. Christopher Carter, co-chair of the New Urban Mechanics. Now Ali Rodriguez, Technologist for the Public Realm of New Urban Mechanics. Samuel de Pina, Director of Operations at BP. Superintendent Paul Donovan, chief of the Bureau of Investigative Services. Palladio The Valley's Student Immigrant Movement. Kate Crawford from the ACLU. Liz McGuire from Gables, Elizabeth Badger, who is from Pear and Nora Paul Schultz, unafraid educators. We also had representatives from OEM come to our last working session as well. And we had Chief, I'm forgetting her name, Chief from BP, who also came as well. It was a robust, many years conversation. Now other highlights that are worth noting to my colleagues. Established this ordinance would establish two new bodies, first of the Surveillance Oversight Advisory Board. This would serve as an advisory board that reviews technology, surveillance use technology and surveillance technology funding that was rejected by the council. In short, if we make or say that we don't think this technology should be applied. This board gets to check and review what we've looked at, and it would write a recommendation to the mayor. And the mayor then can decide to modify the request to the Council for reconsideration. Second this as this establishes the surveillance data and Privacy Working Group, which will work to increase transparency, accountability and engagement around technology and use of data within the city departments not currently covered by the ordinance. This is a living, breathing ordinance. And just like technology that's going to change repeatedly, we believe there should be a working group that includes law enforcement officers, that includes civil liberties advocates, that includes everyday people who are constantly also reviewing that technology. We also added the police and the police to exigent circumstances section. We wanted them. They specifically asked that they be considered for certain exemptions and also to make sure that they were able to access whatever they needed in emergency situations. As the Boston bombing. If that were to happen again, they would be able to access what they need, how they need, whenever they need to do what they need to protect us. There is nothing stopping that. However, after the emergency ends and that could be within 2 hours or whenever the emergency is formally ended, they will need to still provide a report explaining what they needed, how they used it, and why. That's the transparency we're asking for, but we're not stopping law enforcement from protecting people. We also made sure that there were certain aspects and reporting that was still allowed for when it comes to BEPS, especially if it had to do with possession of ammunition or any particular weaponry as already defined by state law. So we wanted to make sure that was clear that the reports and their transparency from BP to BP or the Boston Police Department was consistent with our state law. And ultimately this is, I think, a balanced approach to really meeting the moment. People want to know how we're being watched by our government. They also want to know how their tax dollars are being spent. And there are certain exemptions that we have provided throughout the law. Again. This is a living, breathing law with a working group to make sure we hit the right moment as the moment and the movement changes. So this docket has been amended many, many times. It was my think, my first 25 page ordinance. We got through every single one of them. And I do want to thank again all of the city departments, the Boston Police Department, the Boston Parks Department, BP's Boston Public Health Commission, Boston Housing Authority, Boston Municipal Protection Services, and the Office of Emergency Management for being there throughout all of those conversations. Of course, to the two lead sponsors, I will turn the microphone over to you, Councilor Arroyo and Councilor Wu. But it is my recommendation that after a copious amount of conversation, back and forth debate and I think a real demonstration of a democratic, transparent process because my recommendation to my colleagues that we pass this ordinance. Thank you. And in amended form.
Speaker 1: In amended form. Thank you, Madam Chair. The chair now recognizes the lead sponsor. Councilor Ricardo Arroyo with the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you, Councilor Edwards, for your work on this. This was a bit of a bear to get through 25 pages, as she said. Two years. Countless hours spent. And I want to just thank, besides Councilor Edwards for her diligence and her thoroughness on this, the advocates and the administration on this. This was, I think, for all intents and purposes, a true collaboration. I want to thank the ACLU, the Student Immigrant Movement, the unafraid educators, the Pair Project Credit, Boston Legal Services, but also our partners in the city and at BPD who came forward with language, came forward with, engaged with it, worked through the concepts, worked through what this does in practice and how they could best utilize this. I think this does exactly what we're seeking to do, which is provide transparency on how surveillance is used without in any way, shape or form hindering public safety. One of the things I want to be clear, if you're listening to this oversight and trying to figure out what that means. It doesn't mean that they have to tell us exactly what this surveillance tool is being done with one individual so they don't have to come to us and say we're using it on Mr. and Mrs. blah, blah, blah. They literally just have to say, this is the device, this is what it's capable of, and that's how we intend to use it. So it's not getting into personal stories. It's not getting into personal cases. It's not revealing any of their investigations. It's simply saying this is what this does. This is how we intend to use it. That's it. There's really robust version here for exigent circumstances that allows, as the chair said, for emergency circumstances for them to do that. This also gives us, I think, the best marriage of transparency. You I believe that part of being in a society and part of being police in a society or surveilled in a society is a tacit sort of understanding and agreement that has to happen. And that agreement can only happen if I understand or know what you're actually doing in this creates that so that we have better, I think, relationships within the community where we say this is not just something that is done, but this is something that was embedded, something that we we've agreed to as a community, which I think only furthers the aims of public safety and civil liberties. And I would just say the provisions on here for a BEPS, I'm incredibly proud of. They allow us to still make sure that our kids are safe, while also ensuring that situations that we've had in the past where people have ended up with criminal records out of school incidents or have ended up deported, deported based on school incident reports that that those loopholes are covered while still allowing for instances where for safety purposes, that information has to be transferred. But it creates clear guidelines and a clear system for doing so in a way that is the most protective of our students. And I also just want to end by thanking Councilor Wu, and she's no longer here. But when I first joined on this, Councilor Janey was a original sponsor on this and then went across the hall. But this is a project that had many hands, had many minds, had many, many people put input into it. I'm very proud of the final product. It, to me is the epitome of collaboration. There are things in here that I think are stronger now after all of those sessions that we had that I'm proud of. And so I hope this passes. But I do believe that this is something that is very strong, provides everything from a public safety perspective and a transparency perspective that we were looking for when this was at birth. So thank you very much. Thank you. Councilor Arroyo. The chair now recognizes the other lead sponsor, the At-Large Council from Rosedale. Councilor Michelle Wu. The floor is yours.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you to the committee chair and to the lead sponsor and similarly to Mayor Janey for her work on this in months prior. I will start the timeline a little further back because even before it was filed as an ordinance, the Coalition and advocates were working for two years prior to that . So we've been at this for.
Speaker 2: For nearly four years now, and I think we're at a great place where there's a true.
Speaker 3: Sense of interagency collaboration, work and consensus about how to balance all the needs that the city has to move quickly, but ensure we're doing so with full transparency and accountability to the residents that we serve. So I look forward to this as a starting point and really appreciate the model of not just having the policy and rules and guidelines, but to have the guidance.
Speaker 2: And partnership with community members in the short term and.
Speaker 3: Long term to continue steering this in the right.
Speaker 2: Direction. So I just wanted to offer my thanks as well to everyone involved.
Speaker 1: Thank you, counselor. Lydia. Edward. Excuse me. Anyone else wish to speak on dockets area 397. The chair recognizes the chair of the Committee of Government Operations Council, Lydia Edwards. The floor is yours.
Speaker 2: I think I apologize as the chair of government ops and I would probably say on behalf of the entire body, we also a great deal of thanks to Christine O'Donnell and her incredible amount of work and and quarterbacking this entire as the as the lead central staffer for government office for many many years. So last year this year and as um it's been a joy working with you and will. Yes. So I'll just say that. And thank you, Christine. Thank you for all your work.
Speaker 1: Well said. Thank you. Thank you, Attorney O'Donnell. Anyone else wishing to speak on docket 0397? Seeing none. Councilor Lydia Edwards, chair of the Committee on Covert Operations, as well as the two co-sponsors, councilors Wu and Arroyo, seek acceptance of the committee report and passage of Docket 0397 in a new draft. All of those in favor please indicate by saying I oppose nay. The ayes have it. The docket has passed. Madam Clerk, would you now please read dockets? 09940995099609970999 and 1001.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Mr. President. Docket 0994 of the Committee on Boston COVID 19 Recovery, to which was referred on September 22nd, 2021. Docket number 0994. Message in order authorizes City Boston to accept and expend an amount of $1,603,112 in the form of a grant for the American Rescue Plan Act.
On the Ordinance, referred on March 3, 2021, Docket #0397, Ordinance on Surveillance Oversight and Information Sharing, the committee submitted a report recommending ordinance ought to pass in a new draft.
The report was accepted; the ordinance was passed in a new draft.