Boston surveillance ordinance amendment proposal (2026)

Boston City Council File 2026-1796 (Council Ordinance): 'Ordinance Amending City of Boston Code, Ordinances, Chapter XVI, Section 63, Ordinance on Surveillance Oversight and Information Sharing.' Legistar: file created 2026-09-14 (Monday); on agenda and referred to the Committee on Government Operations 2026-09-23 (Wednesday); status Referred; 12 sponsors (see sponsors). CONTENT (Boston Globe 2026-09-22; East Boston Times 2026-09-30 carrying the sponsors' statement): (1) clarify that exigent-circumstances use is temporary and council approval is still required; if the council votes against a technology, use must stop unless the department shows emergent threats (Globe); (2) notification of new vendor agreements for previously approved surveillance technologies; (3) strengthened ALPR reporting (Globe: vendors, number and locations of cameras, reads/hotlist hits per camera, misuse disclosures). CONTEXT: council voted 2025-08-27 to deny approval of social media monitoring tools used under exigent circumstances; the 2025 annual surveillance report shows continued use plus an added tool (Globe: AI social media analysis tool LifeRaft — Globe says it is unclear whether exigent circumstances were cited for it); BPD ran a Flock pilot 2025-04-01 to 2025-09-04 during which a vendor-enabled nationwide lookup let other agencies access Boston data, then began ALPR programs with Motorola Solutions and Axon. Weber said approval could take months (Globe). Amends Ordinance on Surveillance Oversight and Information Sharing. NOT ESTABLISHED: hearing date, final text, adoption.