AUGUSTA - Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, introduced two bills regarding information safety and increased government accountability on Monday. LD 894, An Act To Increase Government Accountability by Removing the Restriction on the Dissemination of Information Regarding Investigations, and LD 1278, An Act To End the Maine Information and Analysis Center Program, were both heard before the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee.
Under current law, Maine State Police are allowed to use technologies to scan faces, intercept cell phone activity and monitor individual's social media accounts, even on those not suspected of committing a crime, without notifying the public. LD 894 seeks to repeal a law that allows the Maine State Police, under the Freedom of Access Act, to refuse to confirm the existence or nonexistence of surveillance information used to monitor the public.
"Requiring law enforcement to neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of facial recognition technology, or methods to track our cell phones, threatens the very core of our democracy," said Warren. "We cannot regulate, debate, assess or reject what we don't know."
Although not available to the public, this information is shared with the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC), a "fusion center" established after 9/11 under the Maine Department of Public Safety. MIAC exists as a hub for the Maine State Police and federal and state agencies to collect and share information. LD 1278 calls for a termination of MIAC.
Both LD 894 and LD 1278 are cosponsored by Rep. John Andrews, L-Paris, Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos, I-Friendship, and Rep. Bill Pluecker, I-Warren, and they released statements in support of the bills.
"If we, as taxpayers, are paying to have intelligence gathered on us, we have the right to know what intelligence is gathered, how it is disseminated and how effectively it is being utilized," said Pluecker. "We know that our rights to privacy are being infringed upon by these sorts of centralized information gathering and analysis centers. We need to have the power to review those practices and determine if they are a budgetary priority in light of the huge issues we are facing as a state: increasing property taxes, increased opioid use and school funding."
"We need the utmost transparency in all things government," said Andrews. "Government power will seek to grow exponentially if it is not bound by our Constitution and rule of law. Having a state run mass surveillance operations center that can neither be confirmed nor denied is a danger to all of our civil rights. We must push back and keep government power in check. We dont need illegal databases of law-abiding gun owners or secret data collection of citizens living within the law."
"Maine law enforcement is suffering from an accountability and transparency crisis, contributing to the public's loss of faith," said Evangelos. "Add to that the operations of the fusion center, which amount to a secret police organization, unaccountable to the rule of law and our constitutional rights. There's no place for this secrecy in a functioning civilian democracy. I'd say we're in a deep crisis. Police reform is sweeping the nation, but in Maine, reform is facing serious resistance."
Contact: Jackie Merrill [Warren], c. 812-1111
Brian Colleran [Andrews, Evangelos, Pluecker], o. 287-1315