Texans for Accountable Government - Privacy Action Alert for Austin

Your presence is needed at this week's Austin City Council Meeting, *Thursday, May 27th @ 10AM*.  The Council will be voting to sign an interlocal agreement which will make the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC) operational.

In addition to this item, the Council will also be voting to approve an interlocal agreement which will position a phlebotomist at the Travis County jail in order to administer blood withdrawals from DWI suspects.  As you may know, this action is a result of Texans for Accountable Government's (TAG) push to ban officers from ever doing blood withdrawals in Austin.  We intend to remind the council of their failure to stand with the many community coalitions and Austinites that united against this issue.
 
Below is a listing of the Austin City Council names and contact information.  Please take a few minutes to call and write to our City Council Members this week and ask for a delay in signing the Interlocal Agreement for the ARIC Fusion Center.

Link to send all Council Members an email: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/groupemail.htm
 
Lee Leffingwell, Mayor: Tel. 974-2250
Mike Martinez: Tel. 974-2264
Laura Morrison: Tel. 974-2258
Chris Riley: Tel. 974-2260
Bill Spelman: Tel. 974-2256
Sheryl Cole: Tel. 974-2266
Randi Shade: Tel. 974-2255
 
ARIC Agenda Item: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council_meetings/item_attachments.cfm?meet...
Blood Withdrawal Agenda Item: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council_meetings/item_attachments.cfm?meet...
 
On the fusion front, TAG has been working tirelessly to ensure that ARIC will not violate the privacy and rights of local Austinites. We believe we have succeeded in ensuring that ARIC will not investigate or watch peaceful activists.  We have also successfully pushed for the creation of an independent “Privacy Policy Advisory Committee” which will give recommendations to the Executive Board of ARIC concerning privacy policy changes and will also keep a watchful eye on the activities of the fusion center staff.  We call it, “watching the watchers”!
 
While we have accomplished quite a bit thus far, there are still many grievances held by the people that are yet to be addressed. The three issues that TAG and the ACLU of Texas have been focusing on are as follows:

   1. The “Public Safety” Mandate – ARIC will take an “all-hazards” approach to information gathering. This means that ARIC will potentially be able to access your health, shopping, or financial records with no probable cause or criminal predicate.
   2. Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) – ARIC will call on officers to begin collecting suspicious activity reports on non-criminal activity that may be indicative of “pre-operational planning”.  This includes asking suspicious questions of officers and taking pictures with no apparent aesthetic value. The SARs program creates a new standard of law enforcement information gathering which is not based on the 4th Amendment standard of “reasonable suspicion”, rather it is based on a standard of “reasonably indicative” that a potential crime may occur.
   3. Lack of lateral oversight - The privacy officer for ARIC is appointed by the Center Director, external audits are defined by the ARIC's governing bodies, and appeals of privacy violations must be lodged with those who refused to rectify them.  As you know, when the state is left to check itself, the people always lose.

It is for these reasons and many more that TAG is calling on you to be at City Hall, this Thursday, the 27th of May @ 10 AM.  We need to show our council that we mean business and that the 20 people that have consistently gathered at the monthly public safety commission meetings are not the only ones who care about this issue.  We can't do this without you!
 
Thank you for your support!