Op. Ed by ZK
The City of Atlanta is the most surveilled city in the United States, with roughly 48 cameras for every 1,000 people. Following the George Floyd uprisings in Summer 2020, Atlanta residents experienced a significant increase in police militarization and presence in the face of calls for defunding. In 2021, the Atlanta Police Foundation was allocated over $2.3 million to use towards video cameras and license plate readers. This funding allowed the APF to finance over 11,000 surveillance cameras. A recent report by civil rights advocacy organization Color of Change has highlighted how police foundations are controlled by private and corporate donors. APF essentially serves as a channel for private companies and corporate donors to control and influence government power while expanding mass surveillance. The foundation has been rightfully criticized for trying to build a public safety training center, also referred to as Cop City. While some may argue that there is a need to increase surveillance, research supports the fact that an increase in surveillance cameras does not work to reduce crime. Rather, surveillance technology in Atlanta, Georgia has contributed to the ongoing racial bias and abuse in policing practices.
Increasing surveillance technology is not only ineffective in reducing crime, but it also disproportionately impacts Black and brown people due to its unregulated and pervasive nature. Motorola Solutions, one of the companies that provided the city of Atlanta and Atlanta Police Department with Integrated Surveillance Technology, is also responsible for selling surveillance equipment to US prisons and detention facilities. Additionally, Motorola provides surveillance equipment to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, in which the Israeli military in collaboration with Israeli settlers use racial bias training to profile and target Palestinians. Because of these relationships, Motorola Solutions has been criticized internationally by racial justice and pro-Palestine groups, and subject to calls for divestment. Various European pension funds have divested from the company because of human rights concerns. Amnesty International has similarly called for a ban on facial recognition technology as a method of mass surveillance, highlighting the role it plays in racist policing tactics by serving as a “digital stop-and-frisk”. The Atlanta Police Department’s choice to accept surveillance technology from Motorola is consistent with its blatant disregard for the inexcusable human rights violations of the Palestinian people, as illustrated by their participation in police exchange programs.
Surveillance technology in the city of Atlanta is being used to suppress political organizing and activism, as can be seen with the ongoing Stop Cop City movement. Following the police murder of forest defender Manuel Paez Teran, also known as “Tort”, there have been active attempts to suppress political dissent towards the proposed police training facility. Civil rights and liberties organizations, such as the ACLU and NAACP have called for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security due to the targeted surveillance of forest defenders. With the Department of Homeland Security working to broaden the definition of domestic terrorism, national organizations have called to concern that DHS is forming a false narrative that protestors are committing illegal or unlawful activity by labeling them as “militant” or “domestic violent extremists”. In reality, the state of Georgia wants to punish activists for challenging the increasing militarization of the police through political protest. By widening its reach and expanding state legislation, the state of Georgia has actively worked to weaponize state domestic terrorism statutes. Most recently, over 60 forest defenders were indicted on RICO charges by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, following a predictable pattern of state-sanctioned suppression.
The recent suppression of political dissent in Atlanta through increased surveillance is eerily similar to the past McCarthyist-like crackdown in which Black Liberation activists were targeted by government programs such as COINTELPRO. Post 9/11, the War on Terror resulted in an additional wave of suppression in which government surveillance and entrapment efforts targeted Muslim communities. In both instances, the communities targeted are still suffering from the aftermath of government abuses, with prominent community members still imprisoned over fabricated accusations such as Imam Jamil al-Amin.
The events unfolding in Atlanta are relevant to all who are concerned about the ongoing violations of their civil liberties and rights. Developments around artificial intelligence, regulations, user privacy and security will continue to advance. While it’s clear that the city, state, and federal government will not take adequate action to protect civilians, it’s paramount that communities continue to advocate for themselves. The unfolding events around the Atlanta public safety training center serve as an example of what could happen in other municipalities concerning surveillance and safety. The South, particularly Atlanta, continues to stand as a blueprint for what is possible in the face of repression. To support the movement to Stop Copy City, organizations on the ground have released demands to push back against the construction.
