Boston councilors seek tighter police surveillance rules

Proposed changes

Boston City Councilor Ben Weber is seeking to tighten city rules governing surveillance technology used by the Boston Police Department. The proposal would revise an ordinance adopted in 2022 and has been sent to a council committee for further review.

Weber said the current ordinance does not require police to notify the council when the department changes the companies that monitor license plates. Boston does not use Flock, a company whose partnerships with several Massachusetts communities have ended over privacy concerns, but the city uses license plate readers from two other vendors.

Weber said those companies may not have received the same public scrutiny as Flock. His proposal is intended to close gaps in the existing rules and provide more information about police surveillance systems.

What councilors want disclosed

Council members also said Boston police have used tools that monitor social media without giving the required notice. The proposed resolution would seek clearer disclosure of which surveillance technologies the department possesses and how officers use them.

Councilor Gabriela Zapata said the council and Boston residents should understand what technology is in use, what information it gathers and who can access that information. Those questions place data handling, as well as the purchase or use of surveillance tools, within the council’s oversight effort.

Next step

The proposal’s move to committee gives councilors an opportunity to examine the resolution before it advances further. The committee review could address how notification requirements would apply when police change vendors and what information the department must disclose about license plate readers, social media monitoring tools and collected data.

The WHDH report said the Boston Police Department had not responded to its request for comment.