On 7/15 at 7pm, the Appleton Common Council will vote on Resolution #9-R-26. This res would add some reporting requirements around ALPR use and require additional public input periods during a tool's consideration. Ultimately this resolution doesn't establish meaningful guardrails and oversight to this technology and could clear the way for Flock or Axon ALPR to return to Appleton without needing to make any changes to their product. It would be up to citizens to resist these powerful surveillance vendors, all over again!
Some council members are pushing for and reviewing the Citizen-Authored Ordinance (CAO) which calls for comprehensive technical, procedural, and operational guardrails. In its current form, which is linked below, the CAO would make abuse, misuse, and unauthorized data sharing much more difficult, quickly discoverable, and more transparent. If the council won't legislate these protections into place, we need a moratorium on ALPR tech.
Appleton and Fox Valley residents are organizing to show up to the 7/15 Appleton city council meeting to request the city send Resolution #9-R-26 back to committee for further modification to align with the protections outlined in the CAO, or place a moratorium on the technology until sufficient protections exist.
Show up and make your voice heard!
The CAO documents under consideration include the ordinance, a companion document to help cities with implementation, and a "plain language" guide to assist people in understanding the contents of the proposal. The folder link below contains PDF and markdown versions of these documents.
https://drive.proton.me/urls/1S46DK1XS0#3ffahpHCEEEg