Eyes Off Eugene: No ALPR system is safe

Presenter During public comment Jan. 26, speakers asked Eugene’s new city manager to take a more critical view of license plate reader technology and called for accountability for Police Chief Chris Skinner.

Ky Fireside My name is Ky Fireside. I’m with a group called Eyes Off Eugene. 

We have a new city manager. When asked about automated license plate readers, our new manager said it’s a good idea if done correctly. 

There is no way to do this correctly. Not morally. Not technologically. That manager said Beaverton was entering into a contract with a different vendor. The ALPRs we’re talking about here are dangerous, no matter the vendor—Flock, Axon, Motorola. 

We are in a point of time where every federal agency is compromised with people who want to hunt down immigrants and trans people, and those agencies want this data. The greatest value in surveillance is to the feds, not to the city. 

Eugene had Flock and there was still unsolved crime. It is not a crime preventative, but it is a technology highly valued by federal agencies. To say it’s a good idea—no. No. We are not going down this road again. 

To the new manager, to anyone: Please feel free to reach out to me or anyone at Eyes Off Eugene and we will happily explain this technology in depth. If you saw the town hall this week, you understand the terror that this city feels as we are invaded by ICE. Mass surveillance will not calm that fear. It will fuel it. 

Be firm. Stand between this community and federal overreach by refusing any form of this technology.

Geoffrey Gordon Geoffrey Gordon. This message is for our new city manager, Jenny Haruyama: First, do not trust Police Chief Skinner. Do not take him at his word. Double-check everything he tells you. That was the last manager’s mistake. 

Second, you will not be starting this job with a blank slate. You are starting this job on thin ice (no pun intended). You have your predecessor to thank for that. And you express some troubling support for ALPR mass surveillance technology, despite the recent debacle with Flock.

So let me make this clear: Do not sign any new contracts with Axon Enterprise Inc. or Motorola Solutions Inc.. 

Axon has armed ICE agents with tasers, surveillance cameras and facial recognition software. Axon appointed former ICE director Ronald D. Vitiello as head of DHS programs and strategy to lead their federal efforts. 

Motorola subsidiary Vigilant Solutions is a leading supplier of license plate and facial recognition software and data used by U.S. police agencies that, in turn share this information with ICE to facilitate deportations. If you sign new contracts or give money to these companies, the city of Eugene will be facilitating the kidnappings, murders and concentration camps happening in America. 

The American Friends Service Committee also lists Axon and Motorola as priority targets for a ‘Do Not Invest’ campaign, as both are profiting from and facilitating the occupation and genocide of Palestine. I’m citing massive technology sales and integration into the Israeli immigration, police and prison system for Axon and the Israeli military communications and surveillance apparatus for Motorola. 

If you entertain contracts with Axon or Motorola, you will witness a human rights coalition of the anti-racists, anti-war, pro-immigrant, pro-privacy, pro-LGBTQ+, Free Palestine, and other civil rights advocates in Eugene unite against you. 

Good luck in the new job.

Francis Starr O’Leary Francis O’Leary. Thank you for terminating the Flock contract, but I want to reiterate that the work isn’t finished and it’s time to craft policy banning the use of ALPR in perpetuity. 

The Council and EPD have continually signaled since the beginning of the public outcry against Flock that they think automated license plate readers are a good idea, but that maybe Flock as a company was the misstep. I think that this is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the public wants. 

Now you all are intelligent people. When you hear people denounce ICE, you understand that that isn’t an endorsement of the same behavior when it comes from DHS, CBP, or their collaborators. 

If you can understand that ICE is a stand-in for all forms of overreaching, abusive, anti-immigrant action by the government, you must understand that every time someone said they opposed Flock, what they meant was that they oppose panoptic mass surveillance in all of its forms. 

The police say that ALPR has helped solve crime faster, and I believe that. But the fact that a 30% reduction in the time it takes to return a stolen car hasn’t deterred anyone from showing up to give you a piece of their mind to convince you that that isn’t our priority.

Despite what marginal benefits ALPR provide law enforcement, people still showed up meeting after meeting, saying Eyes Off Eugene, and continued to show up to call for a ban on ALPR being used in the future. 

Now I want to talk about accountability. The ethos of law enforcement in broad terms is that if someone does something that harms others, they must take responsibility for that harm in a way that discourages repeating that behavior. 

Chief Skinner made a massively unpopular decision that cost the city a tremendous amount of money, and forced community members to sacrifice their time and energy to mobilize against it. There is no indication whatsoever from the chief that he has reflected on the harms that that decision caused. 

In fact, in his Dec. 9 KVAL interview, he expressed he expressed that he intends to go forward with ALPR in the future, and he balked at the idea that he should have to consult the council before making decisions on this scale. It’s clear that he’s not going to take any responsibility by himself. So it falls to the Council to hold him responsible. 

Ask yourself if someone in the Parks Department, a court clerk, or a library employee cost the city potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars and created an issue that you had to hear about at every meeting for months. What would the consequences be? Thank you.

Ken Willis My name is Ken Willis… I’m here tonight to formally call for the firing of Chris Skinner, for the implementation of the Flock camera system clandestinely on taxpayer money against the people of Eugene, against the City Council of Eugene, and against our civilizational rights to privacy. 

Accountability is an important thing. And accountability is the absolute foundation of leadership. So is integrity. So is honor, so is facts. When a leader deviates from the core tenets of leadership, the whole community suffers. 

Chris Skinner has caused suffering, fear and harm in Eugene, was given multiple opportunities with correct information to correct his course, to change his mind, to come and talk to us, and at every turn showed willful ignorance. The man had an agenda and the agenda was fluff. 

He sided with the company over us multiple times, over and over and over again. I have no faith in him. I have no trust in him. I have no respect in him. 

How can anybody in this room feel that way? He’s breached the trust of the city. He did not listen to us. He has been arrogant. Let me read a quote from the man himself. When asked by KVAL whether he regretted not going to the City Council regarding the cameras, he said:

No, because it’s important to understand that I was hired as the police chief, and I was hired to come up with operational strategies. If I had to go to the City Council every time I want to do something unique, it would be impossible to continue my job. 

You guys exist for this. He wants to play with toys. Novelty fetish with technology. He doesn’t want to talk to you or us about it. He just wants the freedom to implement it. How is that not soft authoritarianism? How is that not respecting you? Respecting us? I don’t feel it’s respect. 

How can he keep his job? Every one of you know he has to lose his job, and accountability has to happen. The man stuck a mass surveillance camera system on us that’s being used in Minnesota right now to coordinate the murder of U.S. citizens, violations of our rights—

Presenter Public comments say no license plate reader technology is safe, as they ask the City Council to start holding city staff accountable for the harms they have caused.