The City Council’s Legislative Matters Committee recently examined issues related to law enforcement and traffic violations.

By Jennifer Purcell

The Somerville City Council’s Legislative Matters Committee convened on September 19 to discuss several of the significant changes that have been proposed and requested for approval by Mayor Ballantyne and the Somerville Police Department. Many of the topics that were discussed during the meeting could have quite an impact on residents of Somerville.

Anti-Harassment Ordinance

The first topic of discussion was Order 23-0461, an ordinance that would protect homeowners from realtor and developer mail as well as harassment via phone and email. The general consensus among the councilors is that while enforcement might be a challenge, there is a solid legal basis that would support the protection of homeowners. Chair Lance Davis said that he will reach out to the Chicago solicitor about how their ordinance is working for them and how they enforce it.

Traffic Violations

There were two different topics regarding traffic violations that were discussed during the meeting, both of them regarding ticketing and how the SPD should approach it. They first discussed Order 22-1449, which would allow the city of Somerville to mail tickets for any type of traffic violation, including 311. Their biggest concern is that many cyclists have reported vehicles being parked in bike lanes, making it unsafe for them to ride in those areas. The committee wishes to prioritize the safety of those cyclists and therefore decided that it would be acceptable to pass this law.

Additionally, Chair Davis brought up the idea of automatically capturing photos of license plates belonging to those who violate traffic laws. In order to back up this proposal, it was brought to the councilors’ attention that anyone who takes a photo on their phone can edit it in whatever way they see fit before submitting it to the police, potentially tampering with important information. As such actions could heavily and negatively affect the outcomes of the investigations, this was marked as complete and the committee will begin to work with the police department to see what can be done in order to prevent this from happening.

Surveillance Technology Impact Report

The Legislative Matters committee ended the session by discussing what proved to be the most important subject on their agenda. The SPD had previously requested approval of the Surveillance Technology Impact Report for a GrayKey Digital Forensic Analysis Tool, a device that would aid them in speeding up investigations for serious events. This device would serve the following purposes: identifying and preventing threats to individuals and their properties, prosecuting criminals, gathering evidence, and providing any necessary information to emergency personnel. Lieutenant Sean Sheehan, who submitted the request, stressed that there would be a room dedicated to the technology that would only be accessible to three individuals in charge as several councilors worried about the potential issues that could arise if this device were to fall into the wrong hands.

The device itself is designed to save lives by accessing iOS and Android devices in order to extract encrypted data in mere hours. It would be used to hack devices that the police believe might belong to suspects, an idea that Ward 2 Councilor J.T. Scott was particularly concerned about.

It was ultimately decided that the committee would hold off on approving this request and would instead conduct further research before giving the police department a definitive answer.