BIG BROTHER IS COMING TO KALAMAZOO…UNLESS WE FIGHT BACK!
The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety (KDPS) and a local luxury residential and commercial developer are teaming up to build a ‘real-time crime center’ that would give Kalamazoo police live access to security cameras in the city.
The details of this mass surveillance program are purposely vague, allowing KDPS carte blanche on how they use and implement this system. According to the proposal, this system was trialed earlier this year at an undisclosed location with undisclosed results. This proposal has been tucked away in the City Commission’s Consent Agenda, a move to avoid public discussion.
This mass surveillance system will use “automatic license plate readers, private security cameras, doorbell cameras, traffic cameras, body cameras, and other emergency response platforms” in addition to the cameras currently owned by the city. If implemented, the system will watch over regular people enjoying Kalamazoo’s public spaces. The system will store that data for an unknown amount of time and be accessible by police and potentially other entities.
When we look at how these systems have been implemented in other cities, as well as KDPS’s track record, it is easy to predict just how this mass surveillance system will be used. It will be used to harass, arrest, imprison and inflict violence upon Kalamazoo’s poorest community members. Its purpose, made obvious by the system’s private backer, is to protect the property of downtown developers at the expense of Kalamazoo’s people.
According to the ACLU the “side effects from surveillance can include the loss of privacy, the possibility of abuse, chilling effects on creativity and freedom of expression, and disparate racial impacts that worsen existing social injustices.”
This program will create the infrastructure needed for KDPS to introduce racist and inaccurate facial recognition technology, further eroding the basic civil rights of those in our city.
The proposal submitted to the City Commission is purposely vague giving no hard details on the proposed surveillance areas or usage. Nor does it give the results or location of the trial held earlier in January.
The ACLU provides six questions to answer before implementing these surveillance systems into our public spaces.
- Does the technology work?
- How effective is the technology?
- How big is the danger the technology will allegedly reduce?
- What are the negative side-effects of the technology?
- What are the opportunity costs of spending resources on the technology?
- Does the community want it?
None of these questions have been answered in the current proposal.
The current proposal also fails to describe any limits on how the video will be used. As it stands, the video feed could be shared with other organizations such as private corporations and federal law enforcement including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Even if the system is used exclusively by KDPS, can we trust them to use it appropriately?
In recent years the department has shown a less than stellar record for public safety.
A 2021 report found that there was ‘surprisingly little of body-worn camera footage’ during the height of the BLM protests. During this time KDPS inflicted violence on non-violent protesters including the use of OC spray, pepper balls and tear gas, often in violation of the department’s own policies. A few months later, the department would welcome the far right Proud Boys into Kalamazoo, providing them protection during their violent rampage in our community. Community members and journalists were the target of the arrests that day, not the violent visitors. The fallout of the department’s response to these events led to the messy removal of then Chief Karianne Thomas. Her successor, Vernon Coakley, was handpicked by the city. In December 2022, Coakley and the City ‘parted ways’ after an investigation into harassment allegations against him.
A department with this recent history cannot be trusted with the powerful tools proposed. These tools will be used by the department to streamline their violent behavior, allowing them to arrest more activists, journalists and citizens.
A 2021 community survey showed that the community demands the government to be more honest, open and transparent. If the City Commission wishes to listen to the community, they should embrace transparency and open the proposal to robust public discussion.
After all this proposal hasn’t come from the working class of Kalamazoo. Instead, it is the brainchild of local businesses and spearheaded by the Peregrine Company, a luxury real estate developer with a portfolio of properties in Downtown Kalamazoo. The $100,000 grant supplied by the company would fund the majority of the program’s first year and the additional $225,000 for the next two years will be paid by the City’s special projects approval process.
With this significant investment, it is obvious this surveillance system will be used primarily to protect the property of the Peregrine Company and other businesses. Using publicly funded police to protect their private property.
How do we fight this proposal?
If you believe mass surveillance has no place in our community, or if you believe the current proposal is not nearly transparent enough, then please let your voice be heard!
We demand the City Commission:
- Reject the proposal and decline the grant provided by the Peregrine Company.
- Provide a report to the public explaining the full extent of the surveillance system that answers the six questions provided by the ACLU.
- Make proactive moves to ban the use of racist facial recognition technology in the City of Kalamazoo.
- Disclose the results from the secretive January 2023 trail of the technology.
- Engage the community with a public discussion period.
HOW TO ACT: Contact the Commission
- In Person: Attend the next Kalamazoo City Commission meeting, TOMORROW Monday, June 5 at 7pm at the City Commission Chambers (241 West South Street). Call for items 7 & 8 be moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda and voice your opinion during the public comment period.
- Phone In: Call into the City Commission Meeting at 888-382-9556 during the public comment period (around 7:10pm).
- Email Your Commissioners: Email the City Commission and demand the proposal be rejected until there is proper transparency and public discussion. We’ve provided an email example template you can use here with a list of the relevant email addresses.
To be kept in the loop with this fight, and show your support, sign our petition.
We encourage all of those who value privacy and basic civil rights to speak out against this proposal. We cannot allow Big Brother to set up shop in our community, opening the door for even more invasive measures and inflicting even more violence on the poorest in our community.
In Solidarity,
SWMI DSA
Southwest Michigan DSA 