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Date: 2/8/2022
NORTHAMPTON – During a Feb. 3 meeting, the Northampton City Council conducted a two-hour discussion about a plan to upgrade Northampton Police Department’s (NPD) dashboard cameras through a five-year contract with Motorola Solutions.
The measure, issued by Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, was sent to the Feb. 3 consent agenda – a list of orders that had already passed their first readings during the meeting on Jan. 27 and required a single vote.
The item was taken off the consent agenda for the intent of learning more about the technology before taking a vote, as well as to understand the purpose of entering a contract with Motorola Solutions, Motorola, according to local activists who are worried about entering this type of contract, is one of the largest police tech corporations in the world and has a history of contracting with federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE).
Northampton Abolition Now has expressed concern on its Facebook page that the footage recorded with the Motorola system can be “used by police, ICE and other state and federal agencies to further criminalize communities of color and do not produce transparency or accountability. The high-resolution video footage collected by the dashcams must be handed over to ICE and any federal or state enforcement agency upon request.”
Major concerns about Motorola and the technology it offers were also expressed during a little over an hour of public comment during the meeting. Many of the comments included privacy uncertainties around the company’s reliance on artificial intelligence and cloud-based software, as well as its ability to offer facial recognition and scan license plates.
The city currently has in-car camera systems that are used for “transparency” and “accurate video records” that could be used in future court cases, said Sciarra. According to the mayor and Information Technology (IT) Director Antonio Pagan, the current system for capturing dash footage has not been working properly and attempts to repair it have been unsuccessful.
“The random failures that we had with the current system were really working against the goals of the NPD Department,” said Pagan.
A five-year contract with the Motorola Solutions system, called WatchGuard, would cost $49,000 up front and continue with a $21,000 annual payment for the length of the contract. Although this contract proposal involves the police, the IT Department is the one that oversees all technology purchases – a rule that was implemented a few years ago when all IT departments throughout the city were consolidated into one centralized department.
When originally presented at the Jan. 27 meeting, the wording of the order appeared opaque and did not mention the Police Department nor the technology being requested.
Sciarra addressed people’s concern about the wording of the order, saying that she should have been clearer when it was first presented in January. “I certainly understand that concern,” said Sciarra. “I agree, that [the order] should’ve been more descriptive, and we’ll make sure that they are going forward.”
According to Pagan and Sciarra, the city would not allow facial recognition or license scanning to occur, as the city passed an ordinance in 2019 that banned the use of facial recognition in any city department.
Pagan noted that the city used a rubric to help determine and assess which technology company would be the best to enter a contract with. Out of the three that the city considered, Pagan said that Motorola was the only company that provided on-cloud and on-premise software. Getac, a Taiwanese multinational technology company, as well as the Arizona-based company Axon, were the other two technology companies considered. Currently, according to Pagan, 80 percent of software solutions are cloud-based within the city’s IT Department.
The rubric used to determine which company would be the best fit did not consider the social implications of implementing technology of this nature, which is something the city councilors collectively felt should be considered before entering a contract.
According to Police Chief Jody Kasper, the current technology holds evidentiary information for a specific case and triggers the dash cam to record when the blue lights turn on in a police cruiser. The latter situation is referred to as “alarm footage.” Typically, this alarm footage would transfer wirelessly to the police station for evidence, and any private or unnecessary information could be redacted. If a police stop results in an arrest, then the system more often than not would record that drive back to the station, as well.
Kasper also added that the random traffic footage that is recorded every day is continuously overwritten and is not retained due to its costliness. Retention data is planned to be discussed with the IT Department if or when a contract is drafted.
A couple of councilors asked questions and expressed concern about the possibility of state or federal authorities stepping in to borrow data from the NPD with the new system. Kasper said she is unaware of a law that allows authorities to collect their data without some type of case investigation or subpoena. According to Pagan, “only a few members” of the NPD would be allowed to manage the data. Motorola would be required to come to the NPD if they would want any data shared.
According to Kasper, it is a common occurrence to have lost data due to the lack of efficiency with the current system but did not have exact estimates on how often this occurs. “This is very commonly used footage that we have,” said Kasper, when speaking on the current system. “People just don’t believe unless they see, so this has been a game-changer for us.”
Ultimately, the council decided to refer the measure to the Finance Committee for further discussion and to consider those social implications, especially considering Motorola’s highly questionable history with other organizations. The meeting was conducted on Feb. 8, and Reminder Publishing will have more on what occurred as it was past press time. Pagan and the city hope to have a contract implemented by the beginning of March.
Prior to the meeting, the activist group Northampton Abolition Now published a Facebook post decrying Motorola’s technology, and asked people to write to the city councilors and mayor to persuade them to not pursue this contract. “More technology in the hands of police does not protect us, and it actively harms our community, especially BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color], low-income, and houseless community members,” the statement read.
Additionally, Dan Cannity, the former Northampton Policing Review Commission co-chair, wrote a letter to the City Council posing questions about the technology and arguing why it would not be useful. “While the intention to use cameras to record police interactions can come from a good place, most of the research on recordings of police interactions show that they do not make major improvements in anyone’s safety or reduce the harms of policing,” read part of the letter. “Cameras and surveillance are not the solution to over policing or addressing the harms of policing.”
Council Vice President Karen Foster said she does not want to necessarily slow down the process of implementing a contract, but she also added that the number of issues raised during the meeting should be considered for their rubric, so as to insure that the council is more aware of the contract’s implications.
“I just don’t believe that dashcams are really that great,” said at-large Councilor Jamila Gore. “I just think we need to look into that more and think about if that’s actually what we want to proceed with.”
“The thing I find most persuasive is the social implications of who we’re going into business with,” said at-large city councilor Marissa Elkins. “I am moved by that … I am concerned about that.”
“I just feel uncomfortable moving quickly on this,” said Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge. “I feel that there should be more communication here … we need more information.”
The council also presented a resolution that would call for President Joe Biden and his administration to cancel all student loan debt by executive order. The council appeared to unanimously support it, and a vote on it will be conducted at a future meeting.
The council also introduced a resolution that requests that the mayor and council president jointly appoint a special committee to study barriers to service on city boards and committees and opportunities for the city to work with residents to overcome those barriers. A vote for this resolution will also be conducted at a future meeting.