TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING Wednesday – July 9th, 2025 – 6:30PM Permitting and Development Center – Training Room – Room 1401/1402 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr, Austin, TX 78752 Some members of the BOARD/COMMISSION may be participating by videoconference. The meeting may be viewed online at: http://www.austintexas.gov/page/watch-atxn-live Public comment will be allowed in-person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once either in-person or remotely and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, email Dan Martinez at dan.martinez@austintexas.gov. CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS/COMMISSIONERS: Steven Apodaca, Chair Keith Pena-Villa Suzanne Heritage Rachel Frock Nicholas Eastwood Milena Pribic Carina Alderete, Vice Chair Brian AM Williams Thomas Rice Benjamin Combee Ibiye Anga AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first ten speakers who register to speak no later than noon the day before the meeting will be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approve the minutes of the Technology Commission meeting on June 11th, 2025. DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Presentation on how Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) operate and their potential risks as a law enforcement tool (Kevin Welch, Board President, EFF-Austin) 3. Presentation on the selected applications for the Grant for Technology Opportunities- Mini and Capacity Pathways (Dan Martinez, Business Process Specialist, Economic Development Department) DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 4. Approval of a Community Listening Sessions planning work group WORKING GROUP UPDATES 5. Public Surveillance working group updates regarding further interviews with stakeholders and subsequent action items 6. Artificial Intelligence Working Group updates on new and preexisting artificial intelligence legislation or guidelines and how they will impact the group’s draft recommendation FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If you require Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 days (48 hours) before the meeting date. Please call Dan Martinez at the Community Technology Division in the Economic Development Department, at dan.martinez@austintexas.gov for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. For more information on the Technology Commission, please contact Dan Martinez at dan.martinez@austintexas.gov
ALPRs – Automated License Plate Readers MASS SURVEILLANCE MASQUERADING AS PUBLIC SAFETY Privacy Is A Universal Human Right Freedom Of Movement Is A Universal Human Right ALPRs – What’s Behind This Acronym? ALPR stands for Automated License Plate Reader. Police departments use them to scan and look up the criminal status of a particular car’s license plate. Police have always done this manually, ALPRs massively increase the scale of these lookups. Can be fixed or mobile, but in both cases all vehicles in a particular location will be scanned. The scanning is indiscriminate, no warrant or formal accusation of a crime is needed. The quasi-public status of cars is used to subvert the 4th amendment and its expectation of privacy. Location Data Is Big Business ALPR vendors aggressively court police departments. Millions are spent by cities licensing this technology. Major vendors like Flock make dubious claims of the technology’s usefulness. Went as far as to claim 10% of crimes in the US are solved by Flock! A Data Privacy Disaster Waiting To Happen These location datasets are usually controlled by 3rd party vendors, not cities, leading to dubious security and oversight. In 2020, the UK’s entire national ALPR database was leaked onto the dark web. Immense Human Rights Risks Fixed ALPRs can be placed to overpolice poor communities and communities of color, or by HOAs to privatize public streets. Mobile ALPRs can be positioned outside of abortion providers, gender affirming care clinics, or immigration services facilities. The movements of politicians and prominent public figures can be tracked, increasing the possibility of blackmail. ALPRs can be inaccurate 10% of the time, and the databases aren’t kept up to date. Innocent people have been held at gunpoint for supposedly stealing cars that were inaccurately flagged. Possibly nothing reveals more about a person than the pattern of where they go and at what times they go there. The Human Toll Of Mass Surveillance You lose access to your unfiltered thoughts and ideas. You lose the freedom to be embarrassing, inconsistent or experimental without consequence. It erodes intimacy with other people. There is a never-ending performance anxiety. The Technological Panopticon is a Social Tragedy Privacy allows us the ability to flourish as complex, ever- changing beings. Surveillance deprives us of that. Surveillance chills free expression even in the kindest of hands. People modify their behavior when they know they are being watched. Within the …
2025 GTOPS Mini + Capacity Awarded Applications July 7th, 2025 1 GTOPs Pathways 2 GTOPs 2024 Grant ● Total funding for all pathways: $400,000 Award Pathways: $60,000 $25,000 $315,000 3 2 GTOPs Capacity 4 GTOPs Capacity 5 This funding award is an organizational capacity building grant (not direct service). This pathway has no contracting and no insurance requirements. Funds requested must support digital equity. Funding is available to orgs making less than $1,500,000 annually. Two focus areas ● Technology Infrastructure ○ ○ ○ PC’s, laptops, and tablets; Associated peripherals; and network hardware Software supporting program objectives STEM / maker / robotic equipment supporting digital equity programs ● Staff Training and Development ○ Conferences ○ Workshops ○ Classes ○ Professional membership orgs. GTOPs Capacity Received Applications - 19 total Applications in Green are past recipients New Applicants to the Program ● Cine Las Americas ● HC4A ● Walking by Faith Prison Ministry ● The Collective Lift ● Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action ● Art Curatorial Inc. ● Rancho Alegre Radio 6 Returning Applicants ● 212 Catalysts ● SAIVA ● Art Spark Texas ● Changing Expectations ● BRAVE Communities ● Open Austin ● The Museum of Human Achievement ● India Fine Arts ● Texas Folklife Resources ● Latinitas ● Economic Growth Business Incubator ● Austin Free-Net GTOPs Capacity Awarded Applications - 11 total Applications in Green are past recipients Awarded Applications The Museum of Human Achievement - $2,500.00 Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI) - $2,500.00 ● ● HC4A - $2,500.00 ● Austin Free Net - $1,149.88 ● ● Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action (DAWA) - $2,500.00 ● Art Spark Texas - $2,500.00 ● ● Cine Las Americas - $2,500.00 ● ● Walking by Faith Prison Ministry - $2,500.00 ● Texas Folklife Resources - $1,451.66 ($2,500 Request) Latinitas - $2,500.00 SAIVA - $2,398.46 7 3 GTOPs Mini 8 GTOPs Mini Overview $60,000 9 GTOPs Mini Goals GTOPs Mini is a client-serving, project oriented, mini-grant that provides a low-barrier-to-entry funding opportunity to small, Austin area non-profits. GTOPs Mini supports programming that: ● Increases access to technology, ● Provides digital/technology training, and/or ● Increases access to the internet GTOPs Mini has minimal contracting, no insurance requirements, and pre-pays half of the award up front. GTOPs Mini Received Applications - 17 applications Applications in Green are past recipients New Applicants to the Program Returning Applicants ● Cine Las Americas ● HC4A ● Walking by …
