ACLU of Ohio Releases New Activist Toolkit to Dismantle Mass Surveillance, End Flock Contracts

On Friday, August 28, the ACLU of Ohio unveiled a new activist toolkit titled, Eyes on You: The Rise of Mass Surveillance in Ohio, to empower Ohioans to take action in local communities, protect privacy rights, and advocate against invasive technologies like automatic license plate readers. The toolkit provides important context about the ways in which legislation at the federal, state, and local level is failing to account for the proliferation of mass government surveillance, especially with the pervasive spread of these ever developing and evolving technologies.

The toolkit also includes:

• Background information on how unwarranted government spying violates Ohioans’ privacy rights;

• An overview of various types of surveillance technology, including a deep dive on automatic license plate readers and Flock Safety specifically;

• An Activist’s Checklist to fight back against contracts at the local level;

• Practical resources including public records requests, templates, model legislation for a Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance.

ACLU of Ohio advocacy on this issue is decades-long, extensive, and statewide. Protecting Ohioans’ right to privacy is a core part of the ACLU’s mission and a well-established priority of the organization’s work to protect and expand the Fourth Amendment. As contract renewals with Flock Safety have been up for debate this summer in Ohio’s largest cities, members of the ACLU of Ohio’s Policy and Advocacy Team testified before Cleveland and Columbus City Councils urging contract termination. Similarly, ACLU of Ohio Action Teams in Athens and Cincinnati are advocating for local protections against mass surveillance.

Law enforcement and government entities are collecting data on millions of Americans everyday with no warrant, no probable cause, and no individualized suspicion of wrongdoing. This new toolkit will bring activists into the fight to dismantle this dystopian technology.