Agenda Summary
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In Support of Surveillance Procurement Transparency.
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Official Text
A Resolution in Support of Surveillance Procurement Transparency
WHEREAS: The City of Somerville is the recipient of federal funds through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) Grant Program provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in order to enhance preparedness to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks; and
WHEREAS: The Metro Boston Homeland Security Region (MBHSR) has been established as the local governance structure through which UASI grants are requested, received, and through which funding flows to municipalities; and
WHEREAS: The City of Somerville is a participant in the MBHSR, represented by a Jurisdictional Point of Contact (JPOC) appointed by the mayor, alongside our neighboring municipalities of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, and Winthrop; and
WHEREAS: An integral component of a JPOC’s role is to represent the views and position of their municipality, to communicate with their municipality’s elected leadership about MBHSR activities, and to encourage the appropriate dissemination of UASI-related information within their jurisdiction; and
WHEREAS: The 2019 adoption of the Surveillance Technology Ordinance provides a role for the City Council in determining the appropriateness of surveillance technology used by the City of Somerville; and
WHEREAS: Unlike the municipalities of Quincy and Winthrop who refused numerous times to procure ShotSpotter, the City of Somerville opted to procure ShotSpotter in 2014 through MBHSR UASI funds in order to detect gunshots and enhance police response times to violent situations; and
WHEREAS: Data increasingly shows that ShotSpotter is unreliable and ineffective, including an analysis this week from the ACLU of Massachusetts that showed that nearly 70 percent of ShotSpotter alerts in Boston...
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