The City of Alexandria deploys surveillance technology, including Flock automated license plate readers (ALPRs), without any public knowledge, input, or meaningful oversight. We believe that continuous mass surveillance is a violation of basic human rights and dignity and undermines democracy.
Act Today: Please write to City Council to share your own views or with some version of this message: “I am an Alexandria resident who does not wish to be subject to continuous public surveillance without a warrant. I did nothing to deserve such treatment. I deserve better. The people of Alexandria deserve a say in the implementation of any Alexandria government surveillance. We need a public process that will allow useful technologies while stopping dangerous, overly intrusive mass surveillance.”
Action Plan:
Gather information on the current deployment of mass surveillance in Alexandria and the successful activism of other cities.
Educate the public about the scale and power of mass surveillance and its vulnerability to bad actors.
Advocate for the following results:
- Remove all Flock and similarly powerful ALPR systems from Alexandria.
- Conduct a full audit and disclosure of all Alexandria government mass surveillance systems.
- Initiate a public process, including public hearings, a council vote, and independent review of all Alexandria government mass surveillance systems.
- Enact policies or ordinances that limit approval, use, and deployment of mass surveillance systems. City Council should limit data access (number of police officers), data protection (transfer out of state), accountability (fines for breach of privacy rights / contract), and community outreach (hearings for each location / deployment of ALRP cameras).
Project Status:
We are presently reaching out to community leaders to build relationships and reaching out to City Council to gauge their interest developing a public process to evaluate the various mass surveillance systems currently deployed in Alexandria. We are seeking pro-privacy volunteers to share their views via letters, op-eds, and positive engagement with city council members.
We’re Looking For:
- Volunteers to write to City Council and local media about mass surveillance
- Volunteers to research surveillance technologies deployed in Alexandria
- Volunteers to attend political events and share personal, pro-privacy views with political leaders
- Volunteers to develop and distribute pro-privacy flyers
Project Background:
Mass surveillance, such as Flock, isn’t like traffic enforcement cameras, which gather limited data for a specific purpose. We strongly believe that implementation of any Alexandria government surveillance should be subject to a public process, such as recommended by the ACLU. Working together with our elected leaders, we can create an appropriate public process to stop dangerous, overly intrusive mass surveillance while still allowing useful technologies that serve specific public goods.
While the scale and power of Flock-camera and similar technologies are triggering widespread pushback from across the political spectrum, we in Grassroots Alexandria are guided by our commitment to expand civil rights and strengthen democracy.
Historically, distrust of policing grows hand-in-hand with the scale and power of policing. After years of “tough on crime” mass incarceration in the 1990s (“the new Jim Crow”), the public reacted in the 2010s (Black Lives Matter) and distrust of policing became widespread. Many police departments had trouble recruiting. Policing (and distrust) expanded further in today’s ICE mass-detention era. We are now entering an era of AI-driven mass surveillance. How much power is too much power? How much erosion of police legitimacy can a democracy withstand?
To join a project team, please write to one of the project leaders or to grassrootsalexandria@gmail.com