Quincy chair plans hearing on broader surveillance rules

Quincy Ordinance Committee chair Maggie McKee said Oct. 26 that she planned to schedule a 6 p.m. Nov. 9 hearing on a proposed ordinance requiring public disclosure and City Council approval before the city acquires or expands covered surveillance technology.

The proposal was introduced Oct. 19 and remained under consideration as of Oct. 30; it was not in force. The Quincy Sun reported McKee’s plan; as of Oct. 30, the date remained a reported plan rather than one confirmed in a formal city notice.

What the proposed process would cover i

As described by The Quincy Sun, the proposed rules would require the administration to make an impact report and use policy available at least 30 days before a public hearing. The council would then decide whether to approve the acquisition, contract or use. The process would also apply to expansions of a system’s surveillance capabilities or permitted uses.

The reported draft covers automated license-plate readers, facial-recognition systems and gunshot-detection technology. It would exempt basic building-security cameras and ordinary traffic cameras, and require annual reports from departments using approved technology. The impact report and policy would address the technology’s purpose, data collection and retention, access and sharing, vendor access, risks and potential misuse, safeguards and audits, costs, and alternatives. For residents, that process would make information about a proposed system available before the council decides whether to approve it.

The ordinance is broader than the Flock resolve i

On Oct. 19, the council voted 8-1 for a resolve urging the administration to cancel Flock contracts and require public discussion and council approval for future license-plate-reader vendor contracts. The resolve urged the administration to act; it did not itself cancel a contract. The proposed ordinance would establish a separate, broader process for several kinds of technology and system expansions.

On Oct. 23, the city announced that police had deactivated Flock’s system and would transition to Axis cameras integrated with OdinEye software. Does that mean Quincy has stopped using license-plate readers? No. The announcement described a change of vendor, not an end to automated license-plate reading. The city said police would own data from the replacement system and delete records within 14 days.

The city said the transition was intended to address privacy concerns while retaining the investigative value of license-plate readers. Boston 25 reported that residents raised privacy and surveillance concerns at the Oct. 19 meeting, while one resident supported the cameras. Councilors Ziqiang Susan Yuan and David Jacobs criticized the transition’s handling, saying they had not been told about the new vendor before its public announcement, The Quincy Sun reported.