ST. LOUIS – The City of St. Louis Board of Alders passed Board Bill 185 with a final passage vote of 13-2. Board Bill 185 promotes greater transparency, oversight, and community input in decisions about if and how the police and other city agencies use surveillance technologies. After the bill’s signing, St. Louis will become the 24th city nationwide to adopt a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) law.
“Thanks to the dedicated work of community members and organizations, the Board of Aldermen has chosen to listen to the people of St. Louis and advance transparency and oversight of surveillance technologies and their uses,” said Sage Coram, Legislative Associate at the ACLU of Missouri. “For too long, these consequential decisions have been made in secret by unelected officials without input from the very communities that are impacted most. The passage of Board Bill 185 realizes a more than 6-year effort to empower community voice in the decision-making process to approve or deny specific technologies.”
"Residents of St. Louis are heavily and increasingly surveilled without transparency or accountability from the City and SLMPD. The Defund. Re-envision. Transform. (DRT) campaign views the passage of CCOPS as long overdue and looks forward to it being implemented timely and efficiently," said Rachel Hurtado of ArchCity Defenders, an organization part of DRT along with Action St. Louis, Freedom Community Center, and Forward Through Ferguson.
The bill establishes a transparent, democratic process ensuring that St. Louis police and city agencies cannot fund, acquire, or use surveillance technologies without community input and approval from the Board of Aldermen. Surveillance technologies currently in use must also receive approval from the Board of Aldermen if their use is to continue.
Surveillance technologies subject to review by the board will include automatic license plate readers, surveillance cameras, facial recognition, social media monitoring software, predictive policing software, and more.
"Surveillance oversight is critical to ensuring nobody is criminalized or discriminated against for accessing abortion, contraception and other critical reproductive health services– and especially for our City that has now become a major thoroughfare for people across the South and Midwest forced to cross state lines to access abortion care. We are proud of and thankful for the community members, partners, and lawmakers that brought this long-fought fight across the finish line," said Mallory Schwarz, Executive Director of Abortion Action Missouri.
“The will of the people has prevailed! By allowing impacted communities, including migrant community members, who have been targeted by surveillance, to comment on existing and proposed technologies, Board Bill 185 is a step in building public trust,” said Gabby Eissner, Community Organizer with the Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America. “We look forward to its full implementation and to continuing the fight against mass surveillance and the over-policing of our neighborhoods.”
In September 2016, the ACLU launched a nationwide effort to pass CCOPS laws that ensure residents, through their city council representatives, are empowered to decide if and how surveillance technologies are used. In St. Louis, this effort was led by a coalition of organizations including Abortion Action Missouri, Action St. Louis, the ACLU of Missouri, ArchCity Defenders, the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression, Freedom Community Center, the Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America, and Privacy Watch STL.
“Winning Community Control Over Police Surveillance is a huge victory for St. Louisans. Now we must keep up the pressure to exercise that community control. As State officials step up their attacks on transgender Missourians and healthcare providers, it’s essential that the people of St. Louis prevent our city’s surveillance technology from being used for politicized discrimination and harassment,” said Keith Rose, Steering Committee Member with the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression.
“The passage of Board Bill 185 shows the power and will of The People. After months of grassroots organizing done by our coalition in support of the bill, the community showed up and demanded accountability,” said Tracy Stanton, Director of Movement Building and Storytelling from Freedom Community Center, “This moment tells us more than ever that community members call for new visions of public safety in our city.”