Amarillo board works to protect residents’ digital dignity, rights and privacy
Amarillo board works to protect residents’ digital dignity, rights and privacy
Publish Date: 2026-06-01 17:36:00
Source Domain: abc7amarillo.com
AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — As cities increasingly rely on artificial intelligence and other digital tools, Amarillo leaders are taking steps to ensure new technology does not come at the expense of residents’ rights.
Amarillo’s Digital Dignity, Rights, and Privacy Advisory Board was created under the city’s Digital Dignity, Rights, and Privacy Ordinance, which established guidelines for how the city handles personal data and digital technologies.
Jake Blok, co-founder of Digital Rights House and a board member, said the board’s job is to gather information, set priorities, and provide guidance to the city.
“The role of the advisory board is to get that and prioritize and then give advice to the city,” Blok said.
He added that the work goes beyond the board’s meetings and includes outreach.
“And then it’s important that more and more sources of information are scattered. So it’s not only the four times the board comes together, but it’s also the proactive going outside, going into the communities, listening, and all that together,” said Blok. “Will be inputs, as advice for the local governments for their next, say, decisions on technology.”
Amarillo Police Chief Thomas Hover attended the board’s first meeting and addressed community concerns about cameras and their use, including automatic license plate readers.
“The first one is an ALPR, an automatic license plate reader. Can those capture a picture? And that picture has a picture of a vehicle with the license plate,” Hover said. He said the information must be checked by a person. “And it has to be verified by someone on the back end of that to verify what is, is an accurate license plate. Did it read correctly?” Hover said. “And it’s just a starting point, as far as we’ll call it an investigation.”
Hover said he is willing to attend events and discuss the cameras further.
Assistant City Manager and Chief Technology Officer Rich Gagnon said the goal is transparency, including…
