April __, 2018

The Honorable Jerry Hill

State Capitol, Room 5035
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: SB 1186 (Hill) - SUPPORT

Dear Senator Hill:

We are pleased to support SB 1186. We are organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights and
civil liberties, including the right to be free from intrusive, discriminatory, and unaccountable
government surveillance. Public safety in the digital era requires that surveillance technology by
law enforcement be transparent and accountable. SB 1186 enhances public safety by
safeguarding local power to debate and set community standards for law enforcement’s
acquisition and use of surveillance technology.

1. Why California needs SB 1186

1
Across the state, law enforcement officials are deciding behind closed doors to acquire and
deploy powerful surveillance technologies, including drones, facial recognition, automatic
license plate readers, cell-site simulators, and automatic social media screening. All too often,
law enforcement agencies acquire these intrusive devices in secret, with no opportunity for
residents and local governing bodies to decide whether high-tech snooping is actually in the
public interest.

These high-tech spying devices often disparately burden people of color, immigrants, Muslims,
and political activists. In Oakland, police concentrated their deployment of license plate readers
in low income and minority neighborhoods. In dozens of California communities, district
attorneys and sheriffs purchased social media surveillance products designed to monitor Black
Lives Matter and other peaceful activists. Other police departments scan license plates and turn
over the data to federal immigration agents. As the Trump Administration seeks ever-increasing
surveillance and enforcement powers against Muslims and immigrants, the sensitive information
amassed by California’s surveillance technologies is ripe for abuse.

Recognizing these dangers, many California communities have already adopted rules like those
contained in SB 1186, including Santa Clara County, Oakland, Davis, and Berkeley. Californians
are re-asserting local control of their neighborhoods and protecting their communities by pushing
back against intrusive and secretive surveillance practices. The time has come to extend these
critical protections statewide.

2. SB 1186 gives local communities a seat at the table

Public safety in the digital era must include transparency and accountability when law
enforcement seeks to use technology to monitor, target, and detain Californians going about their
daily lives. SB 1186 would place the decision of whether to acquire surveillance technology
where it belongs: with city councils and county boards. Depending on the community and the
technology, elected governing bodies might reject or revise the proposal. If a governing body
votes in favor of the proposal, it must decide what privacy rules will govern the technology, and
periodically review how law enforcement officials use the technology.

Most importantly, the bill ensures that members of the public have a seat at the table. They will
be notified of the proposed surveillance technology before the vote, and they will have an
opportunity to be heard. SB 1186 ensures that these local discussions and decisions are not made
in secret.

California needs SB 1186, a bill that will enhance public safety by restoring local power over
law enforcement surveillance decisions. It will protect our residents from intrusive,
discriminatory, and unaccountable deployment of law enforcement surveillance technology,
which endangers immigrants and people of color, and creates databases of sensitive personal
information that are ripe for abuse by the federal government.

Sincerely,

2
ACLU of California
Color of Change
Council on American-Islamic Relations – California
Courage Campaign
Defending Rights & Dissent
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ella Baker Center
Indivisible California
Media Alliance
Oakland Privacy
Restore the 4th SF-Bay Area
Tenth Amendment Center

cc: Members and Staff, Senate Appropriations Committee