Oakland’s Anti-Spy Center Campaign Sets Template For Other Cities

Unprecedented public outcry and opposition prompts Oakland to dial down its plans for a mass surveillance system.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Oakland

LOS ANGELES -- Less than a year ago, the city of Oakland, Calif., took what privacy activists considered to be a major step toward a surveillance state. In July 2013, the Oakland City Council unanimously approved the implementation of the Domain Awareness Center, a surveillance hub that would combine public and private cameras and sensors from

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Environmentalist Kicked Out Of Chevron-Sponsored Event

After organizers of a Chevron-sponsored economic development summit learned of a paying attendee’s association with an environmental watchdog, he was forcibly ejected from the event.

Katie Lentsch
By Katie Lentsch
Paul Paz y Miño

On Wednesday, Paul Paz y Miño was standing at the back of the ballroom of the Marriott Convention Center during the Economic Development Summit for Energy and Sustainability in Oakland, Calif., when he was approached by a woman. The woman asked Paz y Miño, the online and operations director for the environmental watchdog organization Amazon

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Report: Most Decorated Officers Also The Most Violent

An investigative report from an Oakland, Calif.-based news outlet finds that the city’s most decorated and honored officers are also involved in the most instances of police brutality.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke
Oakland Police

A new report from the Oakland Police Beat, a news outlet seeking to empower the people of Oakland, Calif., by publishing investigative journalism pieces about the city’s controversial police department, revealed that the city’s officers who received the most medals were also involved in the most shootings and lawsuits alleging police

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Illegal Trash Becomes Shelter For Calif. Homeless

An Oakland, Calif., artist uses trash illegally dumped on the city’s streets to make mini mobile homes for the city’s homeless, effectively addressing two problems at once.

Katie Lentsch
By Katie Lentsch
In this April 14, 2006, file photo, a homeless woman seeks shelter under construction scaffolding in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles is violating the county health code in its Skid Row area by allowing the nation's densest population of homeless people to live on streets infested with rats, human excrement and used hypodermic needles, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has found, in a survey conducted through May 2012. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

The old proverb says that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, but in one city in the San Francisco Bay Area, many people’s illegal trash has become over a dozen mini shelters for the homeless. Nearly half of the 6,215 homeless people in Alameda County reside in Oakland, where many wander the streets following incarceration,

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Oakland Celebrates Win Against Proposed Spy Center

The council’s decision came after members of the public testified for more than four hours on why the surveillance hub should not be in their back yard.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke
Awaiting Caption from K Rucke

Early Wednesday morning, privacy and civil liberties advocates in California celebrated a small victory after the Oakland City Council voted to delay a decision in hiring a contractor to finish building the so-called “Domain Awareness Center” by two weeks. The council’s decision came after members of the public testified for more than four hours

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Privacy Advocates Ready To Sue Oakland Over “Spy” Center

The city claims the Domain Awareness Center is meant to prevent crime, but privacy advocates doubt that.

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke
Information about "DAC" technology on Domain Awareness Center (Courtesy of Oakland Wiki)

Since it was first proposed last summer, residents in Oakland, Calif., have protested the construction of a citywide surveillance system known as the Domain Awareness Center, or DAC, reasoning that the center has the potential to violate their privacy and civil rights. Scheduled to go live in July 2014, and funded almost exclusively by a $10.9

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