Select Board Motion to Refer: Amendment to the Town's General By-Laws adding new Article 3.24 - Community Advisory Committee on Military and Surveillance Equipment

Annual Town Meeting, May 2018

The petitioner's intent is that this new Committee can take over the oversight role currently performed by the Critical Infrastructure Monitoring System (CIMS) Program Oversight Committee, while broadening its mission to include surveillance and militarization in general. Unlike the existing CIMS oversight committee, the Community Advisory Committee on Military and Surveillance Equipment can be forward-looking, anticipating upcoming technologies instead of only reacting to existing deployed technologies. Restrictions on majority membership are intended to ensure the committee has the independence necessary to perform proper oversight of Town police.

This warrant article is complementary to the main CCOPS+M warrant article, but has been separated so that it can promptly replace and continue the work of the CIMS Oversight Committee, and so the new committee can advise on revisions to the main CCOPS+M warrant article if that article is not immediately adopted. Much of the boilerplate for establishing a new town committee was adapted from the by-laws establishing the Town's Commission on Disability. As this new Committee will take a special interest in the effects that surveillance and military equipment will have on disadvantaged communities, it was felt that staff support from the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Relations (ODICR) was appropriate, tying in with the ODICR's recent work on Sanctuary.

The definitions section of this warrant article (3.24.2) is a subset of the definitions section of the CCOPS+M warrant article (4.10.13). If both are adopted at Town Meeting, it is expected an amendment motion will be proposed which replaces section 3.24.2 with a reference to 4.10.13.