AN ORDINANCE relating to surveillance technology implementation; authorizing approval of uses and accepting the 2020 surveillance impact report and 2020 executive overview for the Seattle Police Department’s use of Video Recording Systems.
Agenda item eight Council Bill 120055 An ordinance relating to surveillance technology implementation authorizing approval of uses and accepting the 2020 Surveillance Impact Report in 2020. Executive Overview for the Seattle Police Department's use of Video Recording Systems. The committee recommends the bill passes amended. Thank you so much, Councilor Petersen. As chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to address this item. Thank you. Colleagues, this is the last of these Council 120055 as your surveillance impact report covering an existing camera system used only at speed facilities. After adopting amendments, our committee unanimously recommended approval. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Peterson, are there any comments or questions from council members on the presentation and passage of this bill? And I must get up. Thank you so much. I am again sorry to ask some questions and I'm sure you dealt with committee but council member Petersen as chair of the committee, perhaps this is for you or the President pro tem as chair of public safety. Did I understand correctly that this is an existing technology that we're now approving? How come SPV had approval to use it prior to today's authorization? That is the nature of the beast. Councilmember Petersen. Sure, sure. This surveillance ordinance that was originally adopted in 2017 and then refined by Council President Gonzalez in 2018 and others, this is the process where it goes first, goes through the surveillance working group, the volunteer surveillance working group. The department puts together report. It's reviewed by the Information Technology Department just to scope out exactly what the technology does and what the concerns, whether it is surveillance has surveillance capabilities, what concerns might be what the litigants are to those concerns. And it works its way through this process to get to us. And then, like I said, the Office of the Inspector General continues to monitor this going forward. But the thing that is at that is the case for all of the technology that all of the departments currently use at the time of the passage of the surveillance ordinance. So that's what we when we talk about the retrospective technologies, we're talking about surveillance technologies that were purchased before the passage of the surveillance ordinance. Our expectation is that correct me if I'm wrong, Councilmember Peterson, is that there are no future purchases of surveillance technology moving forward because we want to the expectation is that we will have three or four kinds of policies as a requirement to permit the purchase. But we don't have that opportunity with things that were already purchased. That's right. And as a. Follow up to that, maybe just to prompt or to confirm my my research as well, just because the department is using it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to authorize that. You've gone through the rigorous process in committee of evaluating the various questions and making sure that it conforms or that you have added the appropriate sideboards to make it align with the Council's the council's priorities. And thus it's not not just as a symptom of it being currently used and thus being authorized, but you have gone through this process with the robust input from the the committee whose name I'm forgetting right now to make sure that those questions have been answered. And then where there are additional side boards, you've worked on amendments and the Council also has the option to not authorize if we so deemed. Not. Necessary. Correct. Yeah, they were very thorough discussions at committee. We had at least two committee meetings on this. Thank you, Councilmember Peterson. Thank you, Councilmember Ms.. For your questions. Are there additional questions or comments on this item? Right. Seen done. Well, the clerk please call the role on the passage of the bill. Excellent. Yes. Strauss. Yes. Lewis. Yeah. Morales is. Must get to. I. PETERSON. All right. Council President Pro Tem Herbold. Yes. Seven in favor and unopposed. Thank you so much. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Moving on, will the clerk please read item nine into the record?