CDT Testimony Before D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety
On February 17, 2022, the D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety held a Performance Oversight Hearing regarding the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. As a member of the Community Oversight of Surveillance-DC coalition, CDT presented testimony to join our partners in calling for adoption of local legislation that requires community input and Council approval in all acquisition and use of surveillance technologies by D.C. government agencies.
It is widely known that Black and brown people are historically overpoliced and overrepresented in use-of-force incidents. Fellow witnesses shared from personal experience how this reality remains especially acute for Black and immigrant communities in D.C. Across the country, rates of police encounters and arrests are used as data points to inform where to look for crime, further directing police to communities that are disproportionately targeted to begin with. Surveillance technologies build upon these factors – they process the data they collect to flag public safety threats without the situational context necessary to avoid excessive police responses. As a result, certain uses of these technologies have threatened civil rights, due process rights, privacy, and free expression. When the threats are so severe, accountability to the public is especially critical. Therefore, impacted communities must be recognized and treated as key stakeholders in decisions about government use of surveillance technologies.
CDT-led Coalition Calls for Transparency for White House AI Framework
CDT and Americans for Responsible Innovation led a broad, bipartisan coalition of over two dozen civil society groups in calling on the White House to release its Framework for review of frontier AI models.
CDT Amicus Brief Calls on Fourth Circuit to Rein In Geofence Warrants
Earlier this year the Supreme Court ruled in Chatrie v United States that the Fourth Amendment protected all cell phone location information, which CDT lauded as a landmark decision, but sent the case back down to the Fourth Circuit to assess the propriety of the geofence warrant at issue.
CDT and Partners Post Floor Alert Opposing CA SB 1013 Automated License Plate Readers Bill
The best way to ensure that Automated License Plate Readers are not abused is to limit the retention of stored data and to keep loopholes to lawful process closed. CA SB 1013 is a step in the wrong direction, and we urge the California legislature to reject this approach.
British Public Oppose Secret Surveillance Powers and Want Strong Protections for Encrypted Communications
CDT released nationally representative polling data revealing that a the British public are broadly concerned about the security, privacy, and free speech consequences of allowing law enforcement to access encrypted communications.
