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1 Written Testimony on Behalf of Community Oversight of Surveillance 1 (October 15, 2020)

handle is hein.brennan/bcjwrty0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Written Testimony on Behalf of Community Oversight of Surveillance - D.C. Coalition Partners D.C. Council Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety Public Hearing on B23-0723, The Rioting Modernization Amendment Act of 2020, B23-0881, The Internationally Banned Chemical Weapon Prohibition Amendment Act of 2020 and B23-0882, The Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2020 Thursday, October 15, 2020 Dear Chairman Allen and Members of the Committee on the Judiciary: Thank you for holding this important hearing on much-needed police reform legislation and protestors' rights. Our coalition, the Community Oversight of Surveillance-D.C. (COS- DC), is a local coalition of groups based in Washington, D.C., that is working to secure enactment of legislation here in the District to provide transparency and accountability for government use of surveillance technologies.1 We are a diverse and growing coalition of local and national stakeholders that include civil rights organizations, technology policy organizations, government oversight organizations, local advocates, and beyond. Our coalition applauds the efforts that the Committee is undertaking to address police reform in the District. The brutal police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others this past spring-which follow a long history of police brutality toward Black people-has spurred a long overdue reckoning over racial justice in our country, as well as our approach to policing. We are glad that the Committee, and in turn the Council, are responding swiftly and seriously to calls for widespread reform, first with the emergency legislation passed in July2 and now with a more permanent set of bills. However, our COS-DC coalition urges that this reform effort also consider and set rules for police use of surveillance technologies. While it is important to directly address police conduct and accountability, we must realize that increasingly common technical tools contribute to much of the disproportionate policing in the United States, while also enabling police to monitor and potentially stifle dissent. Over the past two decades, police departments and other government agencies across the country have been acquiring, deploying, and gaining access to surveillance equipment, in secret, without any notice to the public or authorization from local legislatures. These technologies include everything from traditional CCTV cameras to large networks of private security and doorbell 1 Community Oversight of Surveillance DC, htgps;//takectrdc'org/ (last visited Oct. 16, 2020). 2 D.C. Act 23-336, the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Second Emergency Amendment Act of 2020, https://code.dccouncil us/dc/ceun-- /acs/23-336.htmi. 1

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