Maine Advances Bill to Remove Police Surveillance Secrecy
A bill aimed at lifting the shroud of secrecy covering police surveillance tools and their role in investigations of Maine citizens advanced after members of a relevant committee overwhelmingly recommended passage.
April 27, 2021 •
unk (TNS) A bill aimed at lifting the shroud of secrecy covering police surveillance tools and their role in investigations of Maine citizens advanced Monday after members of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee overwhelmingly recommended passage.
Rep. Charlotte Warren, D- Hallowell, introduced the measure about a year ago after the Maine Sunday Telegram reported on Feb. 9, 2020, that state police are relying on a provision in Maine law to withhold information about whether they are using technologies capable of mass surveillance of citizens.
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A bill aimed at lifting the shroud of secrecy covering police surveillance tools and their role in investigations of Maine citizens advanced Monday after members of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee overwhelmingly recommended passage.
Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, introduced the measure about a year ago after the Maine Sunday Telegram reported on Feb. 9, 2020, that state police are relying on a provision in Maine law to withhold information about whether they are using technologies capable of mass surveillance of citizens.
Warren’s bill was delayed for a year by the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after it was proposed, Maine’s public safety commissioner, Michael Sauschuck, acknowledged for the first time that state police use facial recognition scans as part of some criminal investigations, but did not provide written policies or details about how the technology is used.
Maine’s Police Surveillance-Tech Transparency Bill Advances
The state bill would still allow police agencies to keep sensitive investigation information secret, but it would require them to release information about the type, cost and protection protocols of technology usage.
April 27, 2021 • (TNS) A bill aimed at lifting the shroud of secrecy covering police surveillance tools and their role in investigations of Maine citizens advanced Monday after members of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee overwhelmingly recommended passage.
Rep. Charlotte Warren, D- Hallowell, introduced the measure about a year ago after the Maine Sunday Telegram reported on Feb. 9, 2020, that state police are relying on a provision in Maine law to withhold information about whether they are using technologies capable of mass surveillance of citizens.
Jails struggle to get vaccines for people in custody
With multiple outbreaks in Maine jails and vaccine supplies trickling in from the state, some jails are seeking doses from health care providers in their communities.
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Even though people held in jails or prisons are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, the Maine Department of Corrections has been slow to get doses to county jails, so much so that some have looked to other options to get shots in arms.
Corrections officers were eligible for vaccines starting in January. But while federal guidance said incarcerated people should be vaccinated at the same time as the officers, Maine didn’t begin offering vaccines to the oldest people in state prisons until last month. Just 284 of roughly 1,600 people in prisons, about 18 percent, had been vaccinated as of April 9, the most recent number provided by the state.
COVID outbreak reported at Penobscot County Jail
The sheriff s office said the 4 who contracted the virus were housed in the same area.
Four incarcerated people at the Penobscot County Jail have tested positive for COVID-19.
The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office said the jail’s transfer testing protocol turned up one incarcerated person who tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting facility-wide testing. Three other incarcerated people, housed in the same area as the first person, also tested positive.
Sheriff Troy Morton said the jail’s COVID-19 safety protocols for screening, quarantining, personal protective equipment use, testing and vaccinations were in place.