Email Council About Proposed Expansion of Surveillance
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To:
council@berkeleyca.gov
Subject:No Expansion of Mass Surveillance in Berkeley!
Dear Berkeley City Council,
I am a resident of [YOUR DISTRICT HERE], and I am concerned about the proliferation of Mass Surveillance here in Berkeley. The city is currently in the process of reviewing proposals from several surveillance companies, but for multiple reasons none of the components specified in the RFP would benefit Berkeley, our democracy, or our country.
1. The other vendors in the industry sell the same privacy invading and AI enabled technologies that Flock has, and they are also building nationwide dragnet databases. Axon and Motorola directly contract with the Department of Homeland Security, conflicting with Berkeley’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City.
2. The ALPRS we currently have track much more that our license plates. They identify and create profiles of every vehicle they scan, learning our travel patterns. Officers use Flock cameras to search for people with descriptions (https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/), which puts all residents at risk of unwarranted searches, especially our most vulnerable populations.
3. The federal government has clear and legal pathways to accessing the surveillance data from any vendors without our knowledge. The City of Berkeley has acknowledged this risk. Under Trump, collecting data on people in Berkeley risks arming federal agents with targets for his attacks on immigrants.
4. Delegating investigative work to AI is problematic. The use of AI to compile data, conduct analysis, and produce drafts of investigative reports means that officers would no longer be forming independent judgement about cases and would have less familiarity with the information. These officers are going to have a hard time catching the errors that AI makes. With the 96% accuracy that Flock claims for license plate reads with its cameras, a 4% mistake rate on the 850,000 monthly scans in Berkeley means that 34,000 vehicles are misread every month. In Roseville, CA, 71% of stolen vehicle hits were misreads (https://www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera-misread-license-plate-reader-california-roseville-police-2026-7)! These misreads can swamp police with false leads and put innocent people at risk of dangerous law enforcement action for crimes they did not commit.
5. We need humans for crises response, not machines. Many 911 calls are for mental health crises or welfare checks. Replacing in-person assessments with a camera feed on drones means that high-stakes decisions will be made with incomplete information. The contract requires training for officers but sets no standards, which can create expensive legal liability when errors occur.
6. The strongest evidence-based approaches for improving public safety address root causes and are proactive. For example, providing resources for those in poverty, offering support for family instability, running community based violence prevention programs, and operating non-police crisis intervention teams. Berkeley’s own “2025 Reimagining Public Safety Report” includes several of these. Conspicuously missing from this report is any mention of surveillance. Mass surveillance cannot address the conditions that lead to crime.
Mass surveillance has become an election-defining issue in Berkeley and across the country. We urge Council to respect the democratic will of Berkeley constituents and delay any decision on the RFP until after the newly elected council has been seated. The currently scheduled November vote with a lame duck session of Council deciding on potentially massive expansion of mass surveillance disregards the will of Berkeley voters and will weaken trust in the Council.
Please consider the grave danger that these technologies pose and help set our city on a path to democracy and join the hundreds of other municipalities who have recognized these dangers. Outlaw mass surveillance and pursue real people and community focused programs.
Respectfully,
[YOUR NAME]
I am a resident of [YOUR DISTRICT HERE], and I am concerned about the proliferation of Mass Surveillance here in Berkeley. The city is currently in the process of reviewing proposals from several surveillance companies, but for multiple reasons none of the components specified in the RFP would benefit Berkeley, our democracy, or our country.
1. The other vendors in the industry sell the same privacy invading and AI enabled technologies that Flock has, and they are also building nationwide dragnet databases. Axon and Motorola directly contract with the Department of Homeland Security, conflicting with Berkeley’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City.
2. The ALPRS we currently have track much more that our license plates. They identify and create profiles of every vehicle they scan, learning our travel patterns. Officers use Flock cameras to search for people with descriptions (https://www.404media.co/how-cops-use-flock-to-track-people-not-cars/), which puts all residents at risk of unwarranted searches, especially our most vulnerable populations.
3. The federal government has clear and legal pathways to accessing the surveillance data from any vendors without our knowledge. The City of Berkeley has acknowledged this risk. Under Trump, collecting data on people in Berkeley risks arming federal agents with targets for his attacks on immigrants.
4. Delegating investigative work to AI is problematic. The use of AI to compile data, conduct analysis, and produce drafts of investigative reports means that officers would no longer be forming independent judgement about cases and would have less familiarity with the information. These officers are going to have a hard time catching the errors that AI makes. With the 96% accuracy that Flock claims for license plate reads with its cameras, a 4% mistake rate on the 850,000 monthly scans in Berkeley means that 34,000 vehicles are misread every month. In Roseville, CA, 71% of stolen vehicle hits were misreads (https://www.businessinsider.com/flock-camera-misread-license-plate-reader-california-roseville-police-2026-7)! These misreads can swamp police with false leads and put innocent people at risk of dangerous law enforcement action for crimes they did not commit.
5. We need humans for crises response, not machines. Many 911 calls are for mental health crises or welfare checks. Replacing in-person assessments with a camera feed on drones means that high-stakes decisions will be made with incomplete information. The contract requires training for officers but sets no standards, which can create expensive legal liability when errors occur.
6. The strongest evidence-based approaches for improving public safety address root causes and are proactive. For example, providing resources for those in poverty, offering support for family instability, running community based violence prevention programs, and operating non-police crisis intervention teams. Berkeley’s own “2025 Reimagining Public Safety Report” includes several of these. Conspicuously missing from this report is any mention of surveillance. Mass surveillance cannot address the conditions that lead to crime.
Mass surveillance has become an election-defining issue in Berkeley and across the country. We urge Council to respect the democratic will of Berkeley constituents and delay any decision on the RFP until after the newly elected council has been seated. The currently scheduled November vote with a lame duck session of Council deciding on potentially massive expansion of mass surveillance disregards the will of Berkeley voters and will weaken trust in the Council.
Please consider the grave danger that these technologies pose and help set our city on a path to democracy and join the hundreds of other municipalities who have recognized these dangers. Outlaw mass surveillance and pursue real people and community focused programs.
Respectfully,
[YOUR NAME]
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