u/EncryptDN

Don't like warrantless AI mass surveillance systems in your streets? This is your chance to ask city leadership to ban automated license plate reader systems in Appleton for good.

Safety & Licensing committee meets next week Wednesday, Oct 14th at 5:30pm at City Hall, 6th floor. This is for Resolution 16-R-26.

You can also email ALL city council members at once in the meantime: https://appletonwi.gov/government/contact_council.php

Every voice matters; use yours!

Full resolution text: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=16052681&GUID=B422FDB3-B515-4EF0-A620-46704D3640B1

Appleton's Safety and Licensing Committee is meeting at City Hall tonight (6th floor) at 5:30pm to discuss a resolution related to automated license plate readers (ALPR) and AI-assisted mass surveillance technology. Come watch or speak on how your tax dollars get spent in Appleton! Public comment on the topic will open near the beginning of the meeting.

Let's make sure something like Flock never happens again in our community.

Fox Valley residents will be giving a presentation on what Flock cameras are, how they work, and how the company has been lying to city council members, police, and residents. After the short presentation we will welcome questions and comments from the public and do our best to answer questions clearly and honestly. Meet in the Orlady room. All are welcome, even if you support ALPR technology and the Flock system. Let's come together and have a civil and honest discussion about Flock.

Tomorrow night at 7pm at city hall the Appleton city council is voting on a very weak resolution on ALPR use in Appleton. Despite 6+ months of community advocacy from many individuals with deep subject matter expertise, none of our suggestions are being taken seriously by council members that are parading themselves around as champions of this issue (Fenton + Van Zeeland).

Alder Fenton's own words here indicate that the performative resolution her and Alder Van Zeeland have authored is meant to fast-track another ALPR vendor back into Appleton after Flock cameras were taken down and disabled on June 30th.

APD has confirmed they are in ongoing talks with Axon about their ALPR tech, which has identical privacy and security concerns. APD and other local police departments from the region met with Axon to discuss their ALPR tool just one day after Appleton's mayor announced the city would stop using Flock. That meeting happened on May 7th. A source from within the city also tells me that it was the mayor's plan for Axon to purchase the Flock cameras and integrate them within their network. This is why the cameras remained up and operational for nearly two months after the announcement to stop using them.

If you care about ALPR or resisting reckless deployments of mass surveillance tech in Appleton streets, please consider showing up tomorrow night at city hall at 7pm and make your views known. These jokers have proven they are intent on spending our tax dollars on haphazard deployments of controversial technology without a serious accounting of the facts and are privately laughing at and disregarding community concerns while publicly pretending they are deeply sympathetic and on top of things.

Yes, I understand that sharing this sensitive information from city leaders burns the bridge to them. But their private mockery and plotting has shown me that the bridge never existed in the first place.

Need to master this technique in order to finally hit platinum 😂

On 7/15 at 7pm, the Appleton Common Council will vote on Resolution #9-R-26. This res would add some reporting requirements around ALPR use and require additional public input periods during a tool's consideration. Ultimately this resolution doesn't establish meaningful guardrails and oversight to this technology and could clear the way for Flock or Axon ALPR to return to Appleton without needing to make any changes to their product. It would be up to citizens to resist these powerful surveillance vendors, all over again!

Some council members are pushing for and reviewing the Citizen-Authored Ordinance (CAO) which calls for comprehensive technical, procedural, and operational guardrails. In its current form, which is linked below, the CAO would make abuse, misuse, and unauthorized data sharing much more difficult, quickly discoverable, and more transparent. If the council won't legislate these protections into place, we need a moratorium on ALPR tech.

Appleton and Fox Valley residents are organizing to show up to the 7/15 Appleton city council meeting to request the city send Resolution #9-R-26 back to committee for further modification to align with the protections outlined in the CAO, or place a moratorium on the technology until sufficient protections exist.

Show up and make your voice heard!

The CAO documents under consideration include the ordinance, a companion document to help cities with implementation, and a "plain language" guide to assist people in understanding the contents of the proposal. The folder link below contains PDF and markdown versions of these documents.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/1S46DK1XS0#3ffahpHCEEEg