The Anchorage Assembly has approved new rules on how city police use surveillance technology, including licence plate readers and the department's Real-Time Crime Center, Alaska's News Source reports. The administration-backed ordinance passed 11-1 late on Wednesday after months of debate and several extended sessions.
The measure sets privacy baselines, bars sharing data with other states to enforce laws against conduct that is legal in Alaska, such as reproductive health care, and requires public reporting and Assembly oversight of police technology contracts.
Members first rejected, by 5-7 votes, amendments backed by civil liberties campaigners that would have written a 14-day data deletion limit into city code and required warrants for searches of licence plate records. The municipal attorney and police chief argued those rules would remove flexibility and hamper investigations.
Source: Alaska's News Source