Detroiters deserve a say in how their tax dollars are spent – and this includes whether to invest more of their money on expanding the use of controversial surveillance tools, which they have had little input on to date. They also have a right to know what happens with the data collected with these tools. That also has not been available to the public. That is exactly why the proposed Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance currently being considered by the Detroit City Council must be passed.  

CIOGS would require a hearing to allow the public to weigh in before technology can be acquired by a city department -- including the Detroit Police Department -- establish guidelines for use of the technology and require annual reporting. 

Transparency and accountability should be fundamental to any well-governed municipality. But Detroiters had little say about the millions of dollars poured into Project Green Light (PGL), facial recognition technology and a real-time crime center through which it is all managed.  

PGL was launched in 2016, when surveillance cameras were installed at eight gas stations and convenience stores around Detroit in locations DPD identified as high-crime areas, with the goal of preventing crime. Since then, the project has been expanded to include more than 700 cameras, in locations as varied as schools, churches, and clinics, among others, at a reported cost of more than $8 million. The City Council approved a $4 million expansion of the crime center in 2019 and okayed a $220,000 maintenance contract with the provider of its facial recognition software last year. The city paid more than $1 million for that technology in 2017, despite common knowledge that the software misidentifies people of color at irresponsibly high rates. 

Council members have said they had limited information on those early expenditures, and residents have been frustrated by the limited time they have been allowed to voice their concerns along the way. CIOGS provides a mechanism for future deliberation of whether the city continues to pour millions of additional dollars into these controversial technologies or invest in other resources like mental and physical health services, education, job creation and training, recreation, transportation or other things that make neighborhoods stronger and improve lives. 

Why we need CIOGS: 

• Under current law, the Detroit City Council receives very limited information about surveillance technologies even though it is the body that decides whether to purchase it with residents’ tax dollars. The Council is provided even less information about how the technology will be used. As for the public, they also get virtually no information, so they have little chance to form opinions and raise objections. CIOGS ensures that the Detroit City Council is provided critical information when deciding whether to acquire additional surveillance technologies. It also ensures government transparency by requiring public input, allowing Detroit residents to have a say on how their tax dollars are spent. 
• CIOGS will provide residents an opportunity to consider whether to continue spending on surveillance technology or to instead invest in resources that are proven to strengthen neighborhoods and improve community safety, like health care, housing, education, transportation, recreation, etc. 
• The broad use of surveillance technologies in Detroit treats people who live and work in the city like suspects. CIOGS will force city officials who want to use surveillance technology to create and follow policies for its use that keep everyone safe and free from unwarranted surveillance. 
• CIOGS is being sponsored by City Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield. A virtual hearing on the ordinance will be held April 12, at 10 a.m., before the council’s public health and safety committee. We urge residents to attend the meeting online, to sign up for public comment, and let their opinions be known. 

To tell the City Council to pass CIOGS, go to aclu.org/CIOGS today. 

Information on the April 12 City Council Public Health and Safety Committee meeting can be found by clicking here.  

We encourage you to log on and voice your support during the public comment portion of the meeting. 

Statewide Moratorium on Water Shutoffs Ends as COVID-19 Cases Surge 

On Tuesday, the day before a statewide moratorium on water shutoffs expired, multiple news outlets reported that people in Michigan were being infected by COVID-19 at a rate higher than anywhere else in the country. 

Think about that. 

With the pandemic surging, our state’s legislators went on spring break without ensuring water would continue flowing into every Michigan home. That means there is now no guarantee people will continue to have running water and be able to use one of the simplest, most effective measures available to stem the virus’ spread: frequent hand washing. 

Again, think about that. 

Shutoffs at any time are dangerously short sighted, but that fact is especially true now. 

In the days before the moratorium was allowed to expire, researchers from Cornell University, in conjunction with the group Food & Water Watch, released the results of a study that suggests a national moratorium on water service shutoffs could have prevented almost half a million COVID-19 infections and thousands of deaths. 

"This research clearly shows us that the pain and suffering caused by [the] Covid pandemic was exacerbated by political leaders who failed to take action to keep the water flowing for struggling families," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch, an advocacy group that has been tracking state and local water shutoff moratoria throughout the pandemic, said in a statement. 

Until now, Michigan, by halting shutoffs early last year, was one of the states that acted to alleviate that pain and suffering, not exacerbate it. Not any longer. 

“This is very disappointing,” state Senator Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) said about the moratorium’s expiration. “Apparently, a lot of people in the Legislature think the pandemic is over.” 

On Wednesday, as the moratorium on shutoffs ended, Michigan experienced 6,311 new corona virus cases. Ten more people died from the disease that same day, bringing the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 16,092. 

Although currently leading the nation, Michigan isn’t the only state seeing COVID-19 cases surge. 

“Besides Michigan, Covid-19 case numbers have been rising sharply in states like Hawaii, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut,” NBC News reported. Those increases prompted federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to warn of "impending doom" if Americans fail to continue taking safety precautions. 

Precautions such as frequently washing your hands – which can’t be done if your water has been shut off. 

The city of Detroit, which is currently being sued by the ACLU and others seeking a permanent end to shutoffs and the establishment of affordable rates, has announced it will continue a moratorium through 2022. A story in The Detroit News last week indicated that many local water systems in the Detroit metro area won’t immediately resume shutting off water to delinquent customers. However, with no statewide ban in place, there’s no telling how long that will last. It should be an issue of concern throughout the state. 

In December, the Natural Resources Defense Council, in collaboration with the People’s Water Board Coalition, reported that an “estimated 800,000 Michiganders throughout Michigan are known to be behind on their water bills and could face water shutoffs” based on an analysis of data it had compiled. 

Before the moratorium expired, Sen. Chang introduced a bill that would extend the ban on shutoffs through June 30, but the Republican-led Legislature let the moratorium expire without voting on Chang’s legislation before leaving on a two-week break. She has hopes legislators will take much-needed action when they return. But other efforts are also underway. 

“Fearing a cascade of disconnections on the horizon, U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan said they requested a meeting with the Department of Health and Human Services about the fact that water assistance hasn’t been released,” The Washington Post reported last week. “The two Democrats have also raised the matter with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and are working to set up a meeting on the matter.” 

The problem at the federal level, according to the Post, is this: 

“None of the roughly $1 billion in new stimulus funds allocated for water assistance has reached Americans in need, nearly three months after Congress authorized the first tranche of money. In the meantime, the Biden administration has resisted calls on Capitol Hill to instate a national moratorium on water and electricity shutoffs, a policy that might have covered people until federal assistance arrives.” 

In addition to issuing an executive order to stop all water and critical utility shutoffs nationwide, the Biden administration is also being pressured to throw its support behind the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 2021, which was recently introduced by U.S. Reps. Brenda L. Lawrence (D-Southfield) and California’s Ro Khanna (D-San Jose). Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the companion legislation in the Senate.  

Supported by a diverse collection of over more than 500 organizations, the WATER Act would allocate nearly $35 billion a year to fund drinking water and wastewater improvements across the country. 

Meanwhile, activists are preparing for the worst. The group We the People of Detroit recently “purchased about 68,000 water bottles and set in motion a plan to truck them to families across the state out of a fear that other government aid may not reach them in time,” according to the Post. 

“There is no policy, no safety, after March 31, from seeing massive numbers of people at risk,” said Monica Lewis-Patrick, president and CEO of We the People of Detroit.