A draft ordinance by the Lawrence Transparency Project would require more public oversight and put up safeguards on the use of camera integration technology rolled out by the Lawrence Police Department this year.
The Lawrence Transparency Project organized following the police department’s adoption of the Axon Fusus program, a new system asking residents and businesses to register their security cameras on a list or integrate them for realtime access by police. (Read more about the program in the articles at this link.)
The draft ordinance is the group’s input on the program and suggestions on how the city should approach similar technology moving forward.
Community members and privacy experts raised concerns about the program when it was rolled out over the summer, arguing it reflected an industry strategy to encourage police departments to purchase more surveillance products.
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Following the rollout, more than 20 public commenters railed against Lawrence city commissioners at an August meeting for approving the program without public input. In September, city commissioners directed the police chief to work with community members to implement safeguards on the program and other similar technology.
Kincaid Dennett, with the Lawrence Transparency Project, said the group created the ordinance using existing city and police policies, the city’s strategic plan, nationally recognized best practices and input from Lawrence residents.
“We see this ordinance as an opportunity for Lawrence to build a modern, trustworthy framework for public safety technology that protects civil liberties, ensures transparency, and supports effective policing,” Dennett said.
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The draft ordinance would codify existing city and police policies, such as requiring written MOUs for camera access and formally prohibit technologies like facial recognition that the police does not use.
It would also establish a public process for evaluating and approving new technologies, such as a possible real-time operations center, a centralized unit where law enforcement analyzes live surveillance video. A real-time operations center was included in Lawrence’s latest draft five-year capital improvement plan but was not yet recommended for funding.
It also suggests the city create a committee to review future new surveillance technology. It would require robust public reporting, including a dashboard displaying “information such as who has access to the Surveillance Technology, what analytics have been used, how the data is retained, with whom the data has been shared, a summary of complaints and concerns, and total annual costs.”
The draft ordinance also would require the city to analyze the environmental impacts of surveillance technologies like machine-learning analytics and cloud-based computing.
Laura McCabe, a spokesperson for the police department, said the police had met a couple of times with the Lawrence Transparency Project and appreciated their input.
McCabe said the city commission had directed them to have conversations with a variety of community groups, businesses and individuals about the program.
“That work continues,” McCabe said. “Once it’s complete, we will bring the project back to the city commission, but don’t anticipate it being done this year.”
Dennett said the Lawrence Transparency Project is awaiting feedback from the police department and further clarity from the city.
“We need clear direction from the city commission so that the public, the police department and city staff all understand the scope, timelines and expectations for this collaborative oversight process,” Dennett said.
They said the group hopes the city will convene a working group including the police, the city attorney, relevant advisory boards and community groups.
Dennett said the oversight provided by the ordinance would help ensure the community could trust the tools used by the city and police.
They said Fusus was approved with minimal public input, and the full scope of what technologies the contract offered was not clear until the group received records through an open record request.
“That document revealed a far broader scope, including AI analytics and other capabilities with significant privacy and civil-liberties implications,” Dennett said. “Combined with the police department’s stated intention to build a real-time operations center, it became clear that oversight cannot be limited to a single feature within the agreement.”
The Lawrence Transparency Project is seeking feedback from community members on the ordinance. You can read the full draft ordinance and provide the group with feedback through its website, lawrencetransparency.org.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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