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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Proposed Iowa City Ordinance Bans Red-Light Cameras, Drones, and License Plate Scanners

ARS Technica posts about an Iowa City ordinance that purports to outlaw police use of red light cameras, drones, and license plate scanners.  While I have yet to read the ordinance in its entirety, this relates to further work I hope to do over this summer on how the implementation of automated surveillance programs can contribute to the existing geography of urban environments and either further or mitigate disparities in law enforcement practices depending on how the programs are structured and adopted.  A general assumption that my project will make is that the implementation of these programs is an inevitability as technology develops and as law enforcement tries to take advantage of these developments.

If this post is correct in its statement of the exhaustive nature of this ordinance, and if this ordinance is successfully passed, it would be an interesting counterexample to the trend I am predicting.  Additionally, the group that is backing this ordinance seems to be in the same vein as the eccentric groups that recently successfully opposed the construction of the Justice Center.  If this portion of the electorate can repeat its success, this ordinance may well become a reality.

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