BAMS Anti Mass Surveillance Pledge and Letter

BAMS has prepared the following pledge, which is aimed towards incumbent and prospective City Councilmembers. The pledge provides an opportunity for candidates and incumbents to express their principled opposition to mass surveillance.

We’ve also authored a letter to council, with the 7 candidates who have taken the pledge, asking them to stop the expansion of mass surveillance and to delay the vote on the RFP until the new council is seated.

Tell Council you’d like them to take the Pledge too! Click here to send them an email.

Watch the BAMS-hosted press conference with the 7 candidates and former Police Accountability Board Chair John “Chip” Moore about this pledge and their letter to Council.

The Pledge

I understand mass surveillance as any system of indiscriminate data capture by which the general populace is automatically tracked without cause or suspicion. Such systems include automated license plate readers (ALPRs), video surveillance cameras (including data assimilated from privately owned cameras), and drones.

I recognize that no amount of regulatory or technical ambition can protect this type of data once it has been collected, especially if that data is managed by a third party provider. Mass surveillance makes all citizens, and especially marginalized groups, more vulnerable to abuse of power.

Finally, I acknowledge that mass surveillance neither prevents crime nor addresses the underlying causes of crime, and it instead violates our Sanctuary city commitment.

I pledge that I will not vote to approve, renew, expand, or otherwise allow any mass surveillance system in Berkeley, and I will work to remove the existing network of 52 Flock ALPRs.

️✅: Signed

️❌: Declined

❓: No Response

District 1

️✅ Moni Gangopadhyay

️✅ Daria Wrubel

️❌ Steve Kromer

❓Laura Babitt

❓Ross Bernet

❓Rashi Kesarwani*

District 2

❓Terry Taplin^

District 3

❓Ben Bartlett^

District 4

️✅ Majdi Gaith Abuhamdieh

❓Igor Tregub

District 5

❓Shoshana O’Keefe^

District 6

❓Brent Blackaby^

District 7

️✅ Syrak Micael

️✅ Aidan Hill

❓Cecilia Lunaparra*

District 8

️✅ Mari Mendonca

️✅ Michael Wallman

❓Mark Humbert

* Incumbent not seeking re-election.

^ Incumbent in seat not up for election.