The Anchorage Assembly approved an ordinance adding rules related to police surveillance and new law enforcement technologies into municipal code.

The measure grew increasingly contentious in recent weeks, steadily drawing broader concerns among the public over emerging technologies like networked surveillance cameras and artificial intelligence.

The surveillance measure has seen multiple competing drafts, one of which initially proposed far stricter oversight of police department operations. What ultimately passed, however, was a more modest compromise version put forward by Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration with backing from members Yarrow Silvers and Jared Goecker.

The approved ordinance takes many of the rules over new technologies written into the Anchorage Police Department's internal policies already in practice and adds them to city code. The police department will have greater latitude for adjusting those practices as new tools become available, compared to what would have been feasible under the earlier, stricter proposal introduced in August by members Sydney Scout, Keith McCormick and Vice Chair Daniel Volland.

"I'm glad that we have some guardrails in place. Some is better than none," Volland said during a short phone interview Thursday.

Volland and Scout sided with the majority of their colleagues in voting to approve the mayor's version of the ordinance, despite some lingering concerns. The ordinance passed 11-1, with McCormick as the lone vote against.

Much of Wednesday night's meeting, and earlier debate on the measure, was consumed with amendments that ultimately died. Volland said that many of the policies and tools that have sparked backlash among members of the public — for example, automatic license plate readers, video footage routed into the Real Time Crime Center and AI programs employed in case work — were already being used within APD before the Assembly began trying to legislate them.

"The technological space and the political space are quickly evolving," Volland said.

Several of the amendments and provisions within the ordinance add new checks on police protocols. Among them, the department must now submit data on its use of surveillance tools in an annual report from the administration to the Assembly, including how it is deploying drones and license plate readers. Complaints and instances of rule violations by law enforcement will be subject to sanctions outlined in code. And any financial contract with an outside vendor that "would materially expand the surveillance capabilities of a technology" has to first be approved by the Assembly, regardless of the amount.

APD is generally aligned with the administration and Assembly on most of the provisions that eventually passed, along with the handful of amendments added to the measure. Police Chief Sean Case spoke repeatedly in favor of elements in the final version.

In a separate but related move, the Assembly approved the formation of a new ad hoc committee that will focus on evaluating APD policies and practices, which will issue reports to the Public Safety Committee.

Anchorage Assembly approves temporary committee to oversee APD policies

Wednesday night featured an unusually feisty debate that was at times hostile and accusatory.

"I think in my years on the Assembly, that was one of the worst examples of policy development, from how it got introduced to the public to how it ended," said Assembly member Kameron Perez-Verdia, the body's longest-serving member, in remarks at the end of the night. "I apologize to the public for a process that I don't think was handled very well. And I think we can do better."

At one point, rhetorical inquiries from McCormick to Case swerved away from the normal patter of clarifying questions and answers into an exchange resembling a cross-examination at a trial.

Shortly afterward, Perez-Verdia broke in to cut off the exchange. "I'm concerned about the tone and the approach the member is taking to one of our employees," he said.

Later on, East Anchorage member George Martinez referred to "unscrupulous communication methods to get points across," a reference to videos McCormick has posted about the ordinance to his social media channels.

Scout, one of the original measure's sponsors, joined the Assembly earlier this year and noted the high degree of turnover among members that is contributing to new dynamics on the body, along with a looming mayoral election this April.

"There definitely was a lot of emotion," she said of debate about the measure in recent weeks.

Another factor that fueled acrimony around the issues, Scout said, is that members have very different interpretations of the facts relevant to the topic, such as how surveillance tools are being used, what emerging case law actually means for constitutional protections, and how data is being used by public and private entities. Added to that, she said, is the anger around the issue the Assembly heard from constituents.

"A lot of members have faced a lot of public scrutiny over these polices," Scout said Thursday. "Many sides claim misinformation coming from the other."

Not long before midnight Wednesday, 11 members voted to approve the surveillance reforms. The ordinance took effect immediately after passage.

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