From: Troy Donoviel [tdonoviel@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:12 AM
To: Kalb, Dan
Cc: Kernighan, Pat
Subject: Oakland's Domain Awareness Center
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Completed
Dan, 
I read with some concern this morning that the City Council is backing away from
 the planned 
surveillance hub subbed the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), amid concerns of priv
acy 
violations and NSA-like intrusion.  I hope that this is merely a delay to better
 organize the DAC 
and not the first step in terminating the initiative and losing out on federal f
unding.   
 
It is my understanding that the primary goal of the DAC would be to pull togethe
r existing 
camera feeds, crime maps, gunshot detectors and other tools into one center in o
rder to better use 
the data and information that is already being captured.  This seems to me to be
 a step toward the 
effective use of information that is already in our hands -- privacy that has al
ready been 
compromised, if you must -- and not some new expansion.  I recognize the privacy
 concerns 
regarding school cameras and fears that innocent lives of children may be intrud
ed upon, so there 
are certainly adjustments that can be made to limit its intrusion.  But allegati
ons of using the 
DAC for political tracking purposes are ridiculous and encroachment of free spee
ch by the 
ACLU are ridiculous -- if there is potential for violent and bad behavior, shoul
dn't the police 
have more eyes on the events? -- especially given the history of destruction by 
protesters.   
 
So, hopefully the City Council will not ignore the silent majority and scrap the
 entire idea in 
favor of (relatively) vocal few.  When news of this surveillance center were fir
st aired, many of 
the people interviewed were not or were barely Oakland residents.  One of the lo
udest critics 
interviewed was a recent transplant and new graduate from an East Coast universi
ty -- someone 
who hardly has the perspective of living on one's own, let alone living in our c
ity.  I am sure that 
it is no fun to listen to radical calls of "shame!" at what should be an orderly
 meeting and to 
struggle to have a rational discussion on an issue.  I do not envy what you go t
hrough.        
However, I think the fear and concern is overstated, if the center is created an
d managed under 
sound principals with the appropriate protections on the data being collected an
d analyzed.  This 
project is no different than those undertaken by other major cities, so the lega
l hurdles and 
threats by the ACLU can certainly be overcome.  This seems like a feasible and i
mportant 
initiative for Oakland and a fairly rare instance where I am on the same side of
 an issue as our 
Mayor.   
 
If we continue to make few changes to the status quo, how do we expect to change
 the status 
quo?   Hopefully, you and the rest of the Council have the strength and persever
ance to make the 
necessary adjustments to this initiative and continue to find ways to push it fo
rward for the 
improvement of Oakland.  In the end, we are just catching to where other major c
ities (such as 
NYC, Baltimore, and Chicago) already are.   
 
Thanks for your consideration,  
 
Troy Donoviel
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