Oakland passes “strongest” surveillance oversight law in US

Enlarge / Brian Hofer, the chair of the Privacy Advisory Commission, speaks before the Oakland City Council. (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

OAKLAND, Calif.-Late Tuesday evening, the Oakland City Council formally approved a new city ordinance that imposes community control over the use of surveillance technology in the city.

Oakland is now one of a number of California cities, including Berkeley and Davis, that mandates a formal annual report that details "how the surveillance technology was used," among other requirements.

In the wake of Oakland's 2013 efforts to approve federal grant money to construct a "Domain Awareness Center," the city has now also created a "Privacy Advisory Commission," or PAC. This body, composed of volunteer commissioners from each city council district, acts as a privacy check on the city when any municipal entity (typically the police department) wants to acquire a technology that may impinge on individual privacy.

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