News & Commentary

You may have heard that Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero has formally asked for an attorney general investigation into the release of the HIV status of man arrested in a sex-sting operation. You may have also heard that the Michigan Department of Community Health sounded the trumpet for an investigation as well. Why all the fuss? Well, Michigan law clearly protects the confidentiality of a person’s HIV status. Although there are a number of exceptions to this law, releasing the information as part of a police report does not appear to be one of them. In fact, even if it was relevant to the police investigation, the information should never have been revealed publically. But this is not the only disturbing issue associated with the incident. Lansing’s decision to deploy undercover police officers pretending to be gay in an effort to encourage men to engage in illegal behavior in the park should raise some eyebrows as well. The fact is that indecent exposure and sex in public are illegal. However, there are more effective ways for police to deal with this problem if, in fact, it does exist. Police departments can deploy uniformed officers to patrol the parks and post signs indicating that parks are being patrolled to deter individuals from engaging in these activities. After all, a statement by the Lansing police chief says it all – when asked why deploy undercover officers in the park; he stated that when uniformed officers patrolled the park, they observed no illegal activity. Isn’t that point?

I am always surprised when I look up while waiting for a traffic light and see cameras mounted at each corner, obviously tracking the traffic activity. I always wonder what they do with the information. Is there someone watching live? Will they use it to determine the cause of an accident? Are they reading license plates looking for a lawless driver? What I do know is that surveillance cameras have become common place and most people are probably like me – we wonder about them and move on. Still, they bug me. The proliferation of surveillance cameras is unnerving. The most egregious use, though, has been in our public school systems. School administrators contend that cameras make people feel “safe” and give parents the impression that the school is actively protecting their children. They also believe that they need the cameras to cut down on theft – you know, to catch students who steal IPods or cell phones. However, there is not one ounce of evidence that cameras are effective at reducing theft or crime and in Michigan schools, cameras are rightfully not allowed in locker rooms and bathrooms where most theft occurs in schools. Yet in school after school, surveillance camera systems are being installed. Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School is fit with a surveillance system (at an $80,000 cost to taxpayers) despite a strong protest from students and concerned community members. Novi High School has an intricate surveillance system that is paid for through a voted bond. Interestingly, in Novi, teachers negotiated to ensure that the cameras could not be used on staff, either for monitoring or incidentally. Despite this momentum, students in Birmingham, Mich., won an important victory recently and successfully deterred their schools from installing surveillance cameras throughout the buildings. As a former Birmingham Public Schools Board of Education member for ten years, I was proud of the students resolve and thoughtfulness when tackling this issue. The students became concerned about the potential surveillance system months ago and quickly embarked on a fact finding mission. They built support with school flyers and meetings, a presence on Facebook, and with an on-line petition. They reached out to the media and communicated with school board members about their activities and findings. Eventually, the students were allowed on the committee investigating the use of a surveillance system. And as part of the committee, the students visited schools using cameras and asked critical questions to discern the effectiveness of the cameras. The students spoke of their findings publicly at school board meetings, and ultimately the school board agreed that there was no compelling public safety issue at the schools that warranted a video surveillance system. Their story was highlighted in a recent article, Privacy vs. Security: Are you prepared for the thorny issues surrounding student surveillance? by David Rapp for Scholastic Administrator Magazine. For more information on rising use of public surveillance cameras systems in towns and cities across the United States, visit  www.youarebeingwatched.us.

Who doesn’t like having a lot of friends? As an organization, we pride ourselves on the diversity of our members and our ability to affect change in the wider community. In order for us to do this effectively, we must reach out to those who rely on us, in an equally diverse way. This year we have expanded our reach on the internet. There’s nothing new about social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, you or someone you know is probably tweeting while you read this. But what might be new to you is that you can be our friend or follow us on both of these sites. Over the course of the last few months, we’ve seen our membership on Facebook reach nearly 1,000 with Twitterers not far behind. Each of these sites provides us with an innovative way to get out the word about events, case updates and legislative alerts. So if you haven’t already, be sure to look for us on www.facebook.com and join our group – ACLU of Michigan. And while you’re at it don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acluofmichigan. After all, how can we continue to defend your rights without a little help from our friends?

When can you tell if summer has officially begun? For me, it’s when I can enjoy dinner on a restaurant patio without fear of developing hypothermia. It’s also a good sign when the barbeque invitations start rolling in from friends. However, the warm weather brings more along with it than just dinner on a patio or hotdogs in the backyard. As with every other change of season, there are adjustments that have to be made in order to ensure that this summer will be one to remember for all the right reasons. While it may be time to dig in the closet to pull our shorts and sandals, it’s also a good idea to pick up a copy of The Voice, our very own student newsletter. In it you’ll find a lot of inspiring stories about cases we’ve championed along with a lot of useful information related to students and minors. You’ll also find a guide on how to throw a police-free house party and a thorough description of Michigan’s minor in possession laws. Michigan’s minor in possession laws and their enforcement aren’t always in sync. As a result, it’s important for minors to be aware of their rights as well as the consequences of their actions. For instance, did you know that police cannot force an underage pedestrian to submit to a breathalyzer if they don’t have probable cause? The publications on our website provide insight into a host of issues and provide valuable information about your rights in your community. So while school may be out that doesn’t mean that you don’t have some homework to do! Be sure to check out The Voice along with our other publications. You may be in for a surprise – our publications may just be a part of that summer reading you’ve been looking forward to.

You’ve seen the billboards and heard the public service announcements – time has run out! Starting today you will need a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative compliant document to cross the border. That means all Michigan residents crossing any land or sea border, including crossing to and from Canada, will be required to produce either a federal passport, a federally issued passcard, or a state issued Michigan Enhanced Driver’s License. The Michigan Secretary of State has been offering the Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) for a couple of months now and we’ve been sounding the alarm bells since. You see this optional license/ID card will use an unencrypted Radio Frequency Identification chip that contains a unique citizen ID number. RFIDs are tiny computer chips connected to miniature antennae with sufficient capacity to hold an enormous amount of data. These tags can be read by anyone with a reader from 30 feet to a football field away, through your wallet and even walls. The state could have secured these chips by encrypting them or insisting that they be short-range, but instead they decided to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security that makes it mandatory to have unencrypted long-range chips. You may be asking yourself why -- why would they put our private information at risk? Their answer is that the card only includes a unique identification number. That’s true, but unfortunately the identification number will become a key, like the current social security number, to unlocking all kinds of information about you. The EDL is also issued with a protective sleeve to prevent the stealing of information from the unencrypted RFID, but that offers little protection given the frequency with which we are required to produce our driver’s license as a verifying document. More frightening is that a reader, able to capture the information from your RFID and able to easily clone RFID’s, are readily available and cheap. So, not only can your license be read at a distance by random scanners, there are no laws that prohibit the skimming of information on RFID, nor the use of such information by commercial brokers. By contrast, acknowledging that social security numbers are the key to identity theft, our laws prohibit their publication and criminalize their misuse. Given the emerging controversy about RFID (Canada has taken a step back to review their use); at the very least the Governor should employ her new Chief Privacy Officer to conduct a review and begin a public debate about the use of RFID. Since the technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, it seems critical that Michigan have laws in place that address and criminalize the misuse of the technology.

Rola

In passing the USA PATRIOT Act (PATRIOT Act I), Congress expanded the powers of the government to spy on individuals, reduce the oversight of such activities, and ultimately increase the secrecy with which the Justice Department operates. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act (PATRIOT Act II) threatens to fundamentally alter the constitutional protections that allow us as Americans to be both safe and free. There are many egregious provisions in the bill that will affect every one of us. Among them are: