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Public commenter accuses review board of siding with police, urges scrutiny of facial-recognition and fusion-center ties
Summary
A community member used public comment at the July CPRB meeting to call the board 'worthless,' to urge action on use-of-force policy, and to raise concerns about police use of facial-recognition tools (ClearView, BriefCam) and relationships with fusion centers.
At the Community Police Review Board's July meeting, community member Mr. Watts (Speaker 3) delivered a lengthy public comment criticizing the board’s composition and urging more active oversight of police practices, including use-of-force policy and surveillance technology.
Watts told the board, "You are here to apologize for the police department," and called the review board "worthless." He criticized the board’s makeup, saying it was dominated by police-affiliated members and naming specific individuals in the room as examples. He also raised concerns about facial-recognition and analytic tools: "I'm going to ask questions about those kind of things... ClearView software for facial recognition on handheld telephones... as well as the one that we have, BriefCam." He linked local practice to broader intelligence-sharing arrangements, referring to "fusion centers" and questioning how the Lawrence Police Department correlates with them.
Chair (Speaker 1) acknowledged Watts’ remarks and thanked him for speaking. Adam (Speaker 5) and other board members responded to separate points in ways that emphasized internal procedure: Adam clarified the complaint intake and investigation on the complaint item and agreed to provide follow-up information to the board.
Watts also criticized travel and training expenditures, calling attention to two employees who went to Boston for training and citing a figure of "$13,000 per employee for 2 weeks" (reported in his comment) while contrasting that cost with local needs.
The board did not take immediate policy action in response to Watts’ remarks. The speaker’s comments were recorded as part of public comment and will be part of the meeting record for any future follow-up by the board or staff.
