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Detroit councilwoman votes against license plate readers for the right reasons... maybe [1]

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Date: 2023-09-30

In yesterday’s newsletter from Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, we got the news that Detroit’s “City Council voted to increase funding for dental services within the city’s service areas for eligible residents.” Sounds good. I couldn’t possibly disagree with that vote.

A little further down:

Council Member Santiago-Romero voted against a contract to provide license plate recognition cameras for DPD [Detroit Police Department] use within the city. Concejal Santiago-Romero votó en contra de un contrato para proporcionar cámaras de reconocimiento de matrículas para DPD uso dentro de la ciudad.

I can think of a few legitimate reasons to vote against license plate readers. Somehow I doubt that they’re the reasons Santiago-Romero voted against the contract.

And the newsletter doesn't give any more context. Obviously I’m not expecting a treatise on why license plate readers are bad. But just a line would’ve been nice, like that the councilwoman doesn’t think the readers will be cost-effective or that she thinks that they’ll have unintended negative consequences or whatever it is that prompted her to vote against the contract. The contract with whom? I don’t know, it’s not in the newsletter.

Perhaps more understandably, the newsletter doesn’t mention that City Council approved the contract 7-2. I had to search the news to find some basic details to make sense of this vote. Andrea May Sahouri for the Detroit Free Press:

Detroit City Council on Tuesday [September 26] approved a $5 million expansion of the use of license plate readers across the city, using federal pandemic relief funds. It's the latest City Council vote on surveillance technology that has ignited debate in the community. ... Two City Council members voted against the license plate reader spending: Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Latisha Johnson. [The council has nine members.] Detroit police have used license plate readers since 2018. But with the city's new contract with Motorola Solutions, an additional 100 cameras will be set up at 25 intersections, according to Detroit police. There are currently 83 cameras set up at intersections, in addition to over 100 mobile cameras. [...] The cameras are focused on the rear of vehicles and photos are taken of license plates, Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes said during an hourlong debate prior to Tuesday's vote. The cameras do not capture the faces of drivers and are not used to identify them, he said. Officials in other cities, like Louisville, Kentucky, have reported otherwise, stating license plate readers can be used to capture faces.

The use of facial recognition by Detroit Police has already had some bad effects, to put it very mildly. The article has a link to an article about that.

One major concern involves potential harm the technology could cause in Detroit's immigrant communities. [Detroit Police Chief James] White said it's against department policy to share data with government agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S Customs and Border Protection. Sean Rositano, who works with the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and is a member of the Detroit Immigration Task Force, said representatives of the task force met with Detroit police and aren't convinced the department's policies provide enough protection for immigrant communities. "Cities nationwide have fought to limit license plate readers because researchers have shown ICE and Custom and Border Protection regularly purchase access to Motorola’s license plate databases," Rositano said on Monday during the City Council's public health and safety committee meeting.

The potential for misuse and abuse of the license plate reader data doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to think up.

Santiago-Romero shared Rositano's concern over potential harm against immigrants in Detroit. And she, among others, also questioned the technology's effectiveness compared with its cost. Santiago-Romero noted that, according to Detroit police data, the technology conducted nearly 25 million license plate readings in the last 90 days, leading to only 64 arrests. But White pushed back: Among the 64 people arrested, 16 are suspected of murder, he said.

The reporter came up with a quick way for the councilwoman to summarize her opposition to the license plate readers. The councilwoman’s staff could’ve used that almost verbatim in the newsletter.

Still, I don’t trust that Santiago-Romero really does oppose the contract for the reasons she stated. Like, if the other eight council members were tied 4-4 on this issue, would she have had the same strong moral stance? I very much doubt it. Also, I suspect her cronies don’t have any particular attachment to Motorola, so it’s okay for her to vote against the Motorola contract.

Plus there’s one reason that I don’t think even crossed her mind, even though she’s been told about it: Why does the contract have to be with Motorola? Why couldn’t it be with a local minority-owned company?

There is a lot of ignored talent for software development in this city. We could put together a team of a dozen Detroiters to take some off-the-shelf cameras and write the software for reading license plates, and ensure the data is strictly used only by Detroit Police.

I have seen black and Latino software developers in Detroit do some amazing things that give me the certainty that license plate readers would be within their ability. But somehow there are always excuses as to why they’re not good enough for entry level jobs in this profession.

Santiago-Romero used to be the so-called “diversity coordinator” at Grand Circus, a “coding” school, and in that capacity, she was complicit with the racism there, complicit with ignoring and actively discouraging Detroit’s talent for computer programming.

Grand Circus is already a major gatekeeper blocking black and Latino from programming jobs, and setting false narratives about “impostor syndrome.” Maybe Santiago-Romero got paid good there, so who gives a crap about anyone else?

Although Detroit’s elected offices are technically nonpartisan, they are almost always Democrats. If we want “more and better Democrats,” then Santiago-Romero is not one of them.

Also, that vote on the dental services might merit some scrutiny...

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