Protect Oakland Citizens' Right to Privacy

At a routine meeting on July 30, the Oakland City Councilunanimously agreed to accept a $2 million federal grant to create a 24-hour "Domain Awareness Center" (DAC) that will in effect create a surveillance system throughout the city by aggregating data from CCTV cameras and other devices.

The ACLU of northern California has informed the city council that it opposes the proposal on the grounds that the system is "intended to collect and store vast amounts of information about Oakland residents who have engaged in no wrongdoing," according to a letter to the city council dated July 24, 2013 (pdf) by ACLU attorney Linda Lye.

 The Oakland City Council has voted the surveillance system in place without establishing laws concerning the privacy rights of individual citizens regarding surveillance and data retention limits.  Tell the Council that these must be respected before the city of Oakland puts the planned surveillance system into place!