END SURVEILLANCE

We are a group of residents who believe AI police surveillance has no place in our community.

Our Mission

We believe that our community keeps itself safe. We reject the idea that surveillance technologies and policing improve our community. We fight to stop militarized, AI-driven police surveillance and instead use those resources to strengthen the community to bring about true safety.

Pasadena just can't find enough places to put AI-powered surveillance cameras. The Council is proposing to turn City-owned refuse trucks into roving surveillance that records and stores video of every street, home and person in our community. This Wednesday (10/7) the Department of Public Works will be giving a presentation on how they intend to do just that.The presentation is vague on details, and Pasadena Privacy has serious concerns about potential third parties, access and privacy, data retention policy, data security, function creep, and the addition of yet another AI-powered surveillance tool in the continued absence of a City policy on the use of artificial intelligence. We're also concerned about the potential for the cameras to use AI to document code violations and assign blight scores to Pasadena homes. The use of these cameras as virtual code inspectors in cities such as Dallas has functioned as a tax that disproportionately impacts lower income residents. Resources should instead be invested in empowering residents to collectively address property issues impacting the quality of life in their neighborhood and providing assistance to residents who may need help with the upkeep of their homes.

Tell Pasadena City Council Stop surveilling Pasadena!

Pasadena wants to turn refuse trucks into roving street surveillance

say no more surveillance!

Scan the code above to send a message to City Council or email:

Tell Pasadena City Council (publiccomment@cityofpasadena.net) your concerns about adding surveillance cameras to the refuse truck fleet. Reference Item 12 Refuse Truck Camera Policy Presentation. Please also consider giving public comment in-person or virtually. Stop surveilling Pasadena!

UPDATE: Success! Pasadena Council voted to keep drone use within the SWAT department on September 29, 2026 and did not expand the policy to full Drone as First Responder use. The council and PD will evaluate the efficacy and cost/benefits in a future pilot of several vendors.

Pasadena Police Department intends to purchase a new robot as well as replace and expand their use of drones.

PPD currently has drones for use by the SWAT team for indoor use only. Now they want to expand to a full Drone As First Responder (DFR) program, which means flying drones across the city for anything related to “public safety”. To be clear, this is an extreme expansion of the use of drones and surveillance in Pasadena. The department has already got a proposed expanded policy approval from CPOC. No one from the public has advocated in favor of this massive surveillance overreach!

The drone vendors most likely being considered are Skydio, BRINC, and Flock! Yes, Flock drones will have ALPR capabilities, and all these drones can have additional capabilities such as capturing biometrics or carrying tasers or pepper spray. There aren’t appropriate guardrails of our privacy, or guarantees against abuse. The limited studies on DFR show no positive significant impact on actual public safety.

Tell Pasadena City Council and PPD that we don’t want additional eyes in the sky, capturing images of people and property! Stop surveilling Pasadena!