2021 NACOLE Webinar Series

Civilian Oversight of Police Surveillance Technology

 

As law enforcement applications of cutting edge surveillance technology grows, police oversight agencies must keep pace with the practical implications of an array of sophisticated hardware & software tools that raise questions about the balance of privacy and public safety. Many forms of police surveillance technology collect information on individuals regardless of whether they’ve committed a crime, and can make mistakes that negatively impact innocent people. An agency’s use of this technology can be shrouded in secrecy. Surveillance information can be misused by unethical personnel and is vulnerable to breaches by malicious external actors. Join us on February 23, 2021 at 1:00p.m. EST as we welcome Dave Maass for a technical overview of surveillance technology such as drones, license plate readers, facial recognition, and cell site simulators (Stingrays). In addition, he will discuss how police agencies around the U.S. are using this technology and how use by individual agencies is documented through records such as usage logs.

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Presenter:

dave_maass_mug_-_9-26-2016.jpgDave Maass, Director of Investigations, Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA

As investigations director, Dave researches and writes about surveillance technology, government transparency, press freedoms, the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration enforcement, prisoner rights, and other digital rights issues. He directs the Atlas of Surveillance project in partnership with the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is the Visiting Reynolds Professor of Media Technology.

Dave Maass is a life-long muckraker/noisemaker who joined EFF in 2013, just before the Snowden revelations. In addition to leading deep-dive investigations, Dave coordinates large-scale public records campaigns, advocates on state legislation, and compiles The Foilies, EFF's annual tongue-in-cheek awards for outrageous responses to FOIA requests. He sometimes represents EFF in digital rights-themed cosplay at Dragon Con, and he edited EFF's first science fiction collection, Pwning Tomorrow. He also researches virtual reality as part of the team that developed Spot the Surveillance, EFF's first VR experience and a winner of the 2018 Journalism 360 Challenge.

Before joining EFF, Dave wrote for alt weeklies across the American Southwest, reporting on everything from Texas death row to San Diego Comic-Con. He has moderated dark-horse presidential debates on public access TV; organized digital media on barely legal road rallies; performed spoken word on a British art-rock tour, and revealed human-rights abuses in Ghanaian refugee camps. His political investigations uncovered embezzlement that ultimately put a New Mexico elected official behind bars and misconduct resulting in the severe censure and fines levied against a San Diego County Superior Court Judge. His work on incarceration has been used to support civil rights lawsuits, detention system reform, and state legislation.

His investigative reporting on incarceration in San Diego County was honored with the Youth Law Center's Loren Warboys Unsung Hero Award and the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement's Contribution to Oversight Award. He has also won top honors from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the Society of Professional Journalists San Diego Chapter. In 2017, Dave was a recipient of the First Amendment Coalition's Free Speech and Open Government Award alongside EFF Director of Surveillance Litigation Jennifer Lynch and the ACLU of Southern California's Director of Police Practices Peter Bibring.
WHEN
February 23, 2021 at 1:00pm - 2:30pm
CONTACT
Cameron McEllhiney · · (317)721-8133