From Automated License Plate Readers in Azusa, CA, to face recognition in Newark, NJ, law enforcement agencies across the country have acquired an arsenal of privacy-invasive surveillance technologies. Far too often, this acquisition and use takes place under a cloak of secrecy and can remain hidden from impacted community members and their elected representatives. Government use of spy tech can lead to false arrests, disparately burden BIPOC and immigrant members of our communities, invade our privacy and deter free speech.

Since 2016, EFF has supported communities across the country in responding to this threat by passing Community Control of Police Surveillance (CCOPS) legislation, putting the power to decide if a given surveillance technology is suitable for their area where it belongs, in the hands of community members and their democratically elected representatives. Alongside local partners, including Electronic Frontier Alliance (EFA) member organizations, and national partners like the ACLU, we have worked to enact these laws across the country. You can press the play button below to see a map of municipalities with existing CCOPS laws.

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The movement to ensure community control of government surveillance technology is gaining steam. If cities across the country, large and small, can do it, your hometown can too. So join us in the fight to ensure that police cannot decide by themselves to deploy dangerous and invasive spy tech onto our streets. Through their legislative leaders, communities must have the power to decide—and often, they should say “no.”