{"id":227310,"date":"2026-03-25T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/surveillance-tech-group-violated-transparency-laws-experts-say\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T01:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:10:11","slug":"surveillance-tech-group-violated-transparency-laws-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/surveillance-tech-group-violated-transparency-laws-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveillance tech group violated transparency laws, experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surveillance tech group violated transparency laws, experts say<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/centralcurrent.org\/does-syracuses-surveillance-tech-evaluation-group-have-a-right-to-privacy-experts-say-no\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-25 00:05:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: centralcurrent.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Former Mayor Ben Walsh created the Surveillance Technology Working Group to ensure Syracuse constituents\u2019 privacy was protected as the city leaned into implementing powerful surveillance tools.<\/p>\n

Experts say the city is now ensuring privacy for the group itself.<\/p>\n

The working group has met in private since its creation, violating Open Meetings Laws that are meant to ensure transparency and public access to information, according to the New York State Committee on Open Government. COOG is a state agency that advises public bodies on the state\u2019s transparency standards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Christen Smith, a senior attorney at the Committee on Open Government, concluded that the group performs duties that are necessary steps in the city\u2019s decision-making process, requiring it to follow New York State Open Meetings Law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the STWG does in fact perform the tasks and functions set forth in the executive order described above, we believe the STWG would constitute a public body and be subject to the requirements of the (Open Meetings Law),\u201d Smith wrote.<\/p>\n

Smith issued her opinion in response to a request from Central Current. Opinions from the Committee on Open Government are not enforceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s opinion means the Surveillance Technology Working Group for five years has made important decisions in private, even though the group should have deliberated in meetings with public access.<\/p>\n

Through this group, the city has implemented several camera systems that built upon the Syracuse Police Department\u2019s existing fleet of hundreds of street corner cameras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Together, those systems surveil nearly every public facet of thousands of residents\u2019 daily lives: automatic license plate readers track Syracuse drivers\u2019 movements; red light, bus-arm, and school-zone speed cameras surveil drivers\u2019 adherence to traffic laws; and, if the Syracuse Police Department has its way, \u201ceye in the sky\u201d autonomous drones will record video as they make routine flights over…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surveillance tech group violated transparency laws, experts say https:\/\/centralcurrent.org\/does-syracuses-surveillance-tech-evaluation-group-have-a-right-to-privacy-experts-say-no\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-25 00:05:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/centralcurrent.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/LPR_Story-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227312,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227310\/revisions\/227312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}