Welcome to the National Week of Action Against ALPRs (automatic license plate readers)! Taos joins nearly 500 events across the country. This week is about people standing up together at public meetings and raising awareness about mass surveillance in their communities.
DeFlock's National Week of Action Against ALPRs, which began today and goes through August 22, was the driving force behind me launching this site and email list. Taos News broke the news about the town's 18 cameras as I was preparing, so I launched earlier than expected. The timing couldn't have been better as Taos DeFlocked in less than three weeks and the county tabled an action toward collaborating with the state on camera installations.
The work continues, however, so the week of action can act to drive more conversation and education, as well as begin organized resistance to any potential efforts by Taos County to continue its effort to install 20 ALPRs from SoundThinking and the state's insidious project of installing cameras where they want (recently in Tres Piedras).
Here's a schedule of ways to get involved and learn more:
August 18, Taos County Commission Meeting
August 18, Attend "Understanding AI Cameras for Activists"
August 18, Join the Taos Surveillance Watch Book Club
August 21, Join the Pop-Up Protest in the historic district
Read more about each of these below.
August 18, Speak up at the Taos County Board of Commissioner's Meeting
While there are no specific agenda items related to ALPRs at this week's meeting, I encourage people to attend and use the public comments period to continue to educate and pushback on county commissioners regarding mass surveillance. A large number of speakers spoke up at the meeting two weeks ago, and even more emailed their commissioner, and we got them to table the state's request for them to support cameras on roadway lighting poles. Nonetheless, the state is putting them up.
Some ideas for talking points:
Urge the county to pass a resolution, opposing ALPRs in Taos County. Even though such a resolution would be non-binding, statements like this against the state can be powerful messaging as they deploy ALPRs in the county without local government support.
Tell the county to rescind their approval of the $200,000 Soundthinking contract. Even though the E911 Governance Board shot it down, the approval at the county level remains on the books.
Tell the county to change the proposed procurement policy, which goes for a vote on item XI.B, when it comes to police technology. As written, the county manager would have the autonomy to enter into contracts for under $60,000. As you may remember, this is how Taos got Flock cameras without any agenda item for the town council to approve them. I understand the county has norms, in which the county manager and commissioners are in constant communication, but that doesn't matter. Norms can shift as personnel and attitudes change.
The meeting is at 9 a.m.
Commission Chambers at the Taos County Administrative Complex
105 Albright Street
Taos, New Mexico 87571.
August 18, Attend "Understanding AI Cameras for Activists"
Join an online webinar presented by DeFlock to learn more about the technology behind AI surveillance cameras, how they see, integrate into law enforcement platforms, how data is shared, and how they intersect with local politics. Registering ahead of time appears to be required.
August 18, Taos Surveillance Watch Book Club Launch
Reading, both nonfiction and fiction, helps me develop an understanding of what's going on and how to address challenges.
One of society's biggest challenges is the emerging surveillance capitalism technology out of Silicon Valley. So we'll read "The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy" by Gil Durán, which comes out August 18, and we can schedule a time to discuss it in early November (email [email protected] to be put on the book club list). While the book doesn't focus much on ALPRs (Flock is mentioned in passing), it does focus on some of the venture capitalists who funded Flock and other mass surveillance technologies that are undermining democracy. I like to joke (darkly) that if Silicon Valley is successful in replacing the United States with corporatized network states, the State of New Mexico will become the State of New Meta.
If interested, I encourage readers to order the book from Op.Cit books on John Dunn, listen to it on the worker-owned Libro.fm, where your purchase can support SOMOS, or download it on the bookshop.org app, where you can choose an independent bookstore to support (Op.Cit and SOMOS are not on there, but I like to support small bookstores in the region).
August 21, Join the Daily Pop-Up Protest
A group of hearty and determined residents have been holding a protest in the historic district for—and I'm not kidding—nearly 500 consecutive days. Join them on Friday, August 21, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., near the intersection of Plaza Drive/Kit Carson/Paseo del Pueblo Norte, for a mass surveillance themed morning (make a sign, but we'll try to have some ready made, too). A petition will also be available to sign.