Public Safety & Criminal Justice, and Government Operations Joint Hearing on November 10, 2026

The Boston City Council’s joint Public Safety and Criminal Justice and Government Operations hearing on November 10, 2026, reviewed the city’s 2025 annual surveillance report (docket 1708), BPD’s revised social-media-analysis policy (docket 1709), and proposed amendments to the surveillance oversight ordinance (docket 1796). City staff reported that the annual report covers 22 technologies across several departments. BPD described public-safety uses of surveillance tools, while councilors and community witnesses questioned oversight, data retention and sharing, audits, and the continued use of technologies after council disapproval. The discussion covered license-plate-reader pilots involving Flock, Motorola, and Axon; BPD said it stopped the Flock pilot after finding data sharing inconsistent with the agreement and said it would conduct a process before selecting a future system. Officials also discussed the social-media tools Chorus and Site Intelligence, the LifeRaft tool, and a pilot of five police drones. No contract award or vote on the dockets was recorded; the chair said follow-up questions would be sent through the committee.

Councilors debated amendments that would clarify prior approval, vendor-change notification, emergency-use exceptions, and reporting requirements. BPD raised the staff and administrative burden of additional requirements, while councilors and advocates called for clearer authorization and disclosure. A proposed $13 million UASI grant and its conditions were also discussed, including data-sharing and border-security concerns; the transcript does not record a grant decision. Specific contract values for the surveillance vendors or drone pilot were not provided.