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The Madison city council's Public Safety Review Committee met on Wednesday to consider a change to the law governing the licenses of secondhand dealers. The ordinance change would create an electronic reporting system where secondhand dealers, such as used bookstores or pawn shops, would report daily to police what was sold and would include a digital picture of the person who brought in the items. The list includes things like jewelry and electronics but it also includes recorded materials such as CDs, DVDs and audiobooks.
Take action: Ask your Common Council Alder to support an amendment that exempts "audio tapes, compact discs, laser discs, records, videotapes, digital video discs, portable media players or other similar audio or audio-visual recording devices," "computer games" and digital pictures of customers who sell them from the daily electronic reporting to local police.
Such an amendment would allow secondhand dealers and the city to comply with state law without compromising innocent people's rights to privacy and freedom to exchange expressive materials.
Some history:
In 2007, a campus-area alder suggested that used book dealers report their book buy-backs to police after a rash of textbook thefts. Bookstores objected saying that the reporting would be burdensome and costly. Police said they needed more tools to fight crime. The idea of electronic reporting came back in 2009 when Madison police held a listening session with stakeholders and explained the need for modernization but also heard concerns about data security, cost and customer privacy.
Why the ACLU of Wisconsin is involved:
This proposal is an example of how whenever the government has access to a list of what we read or what we watch or the websites we visit, the ACLU must respond. Remember how librarians fought back when the Patriot Act would have required them to offer our library records for inspection? They protected our right to read because it was a core privacy issue.
Our choice to posses any expressive material, be it a book or a CD or a film on DVD, is something we may choose to keep private. Especially if that material is controversial. Government inspection of lists of such materials, even after they have been sold to a secondhand dealer, can create a profile of our personal selection or possession of intellectual or entertainment choices.
We have a First Amendment protected tradition in this country to allow people to pursue and exchange information anonymously, even if that information is controversial.
Balancing fighting crime and privacy rights:
Whenever the government imposes on the First Amendment or the privacy rights of individuals, it has the responsibility to prove a compelling justification for that imposition. Police say theft, particularly related to drug use, justifies the need for this database. But requiring secondhand dealers to maintain electronic records and digital photographs of media sales specific to sellers and turn those records over to police daily treats all customers as potential criminals without individualized suspicion that anyone has stolen the CDs, DVDs, audiobooks or other media.
The best way to balance fighting crime and protecting privacy is through individualized investigations by police who obtain warrants to search dealers' records. Database hacking or fishing expeditions or through electronic lists of who sold what would become easier and no less unacceptable under this proposed ordinance change.
Take action today:
The proposed ordinance change should come before the full city council soon. You can take action to protect privacy rights today:
- Call or email your Common Council Alder and ask him or her to support an amendment that exempts "audio tapes, compact discs, laser discs, records, videotapes, digital video discs, portable media players or other similar audio or audio-visual recording devices," "computer games" and digital pictures of customers who sell them from the daily electronic reporting to local police.
- Attend the city council meeting when this measure comes before the full council and register your position against the ordinance change or speak about how the inclusion of expressive materials violates your privacy rights.
- Share this action alert with other Madison residents who may be concerned with the construction of this police database.
Read the proposed ordinance online.
Madison residents can find their city council representative's contact information on the city's website.
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