Court Cases

Don’t Shoot Portland and ACLU of Oregon are two Oregon nonprofits dedicated to advocating for racial justice, police accountability, and the right to protest. In 2024, both organizations submitted public records requests to illuminate how Oregon TITAN Fusion Center (OFTC) works with other law enforcement agencies to monitor and surveil Oregonians engaged in lawful advocacy and protest — including for racial justice. The OTFC is a federally funded domestic surveillance program housed under the Oregon Department of Justice’s Criminal Intelligence Unit that works closely with federal law enforcement agencies like the increasingly notorious Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The OTFC operates as part of a vast nationwide network of about 80 similar fusion center programs nationwide. For two decades, OTFC has operated with little oversight or transparency while purporting to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about “terrorism” and crime in Oregon. However, the OTFC, like other fusion centers across the country, has a checkered history of abuses. ODOJ withheld nearly 2000 records from its response — largely the ones it said the ACLU would be “most interested in” — based on its “Third Agency Rule,” which it said requires OTFC to keep records it receives from other agencies confidential. The Petition argues that rule cannot displace ODOJ’s obligations under the Public Records Law. The disputed records include “Criminal Intelligence Unit Bulletin[s]” issued by the Portland Police Bureau that name Don’t Shoot Portland (sometimes referred to as Don’t Shoot PDX) and “Criminal Intelligence Unit Protest [and] Significant Event Information Briefs” that name Sean Kealiher, a founding organizer of Don’t Shoot PDX’s community action plan who was killed in 2019 at age 23. The existence of the records suggests additional evidence of OTFC’s improper surveillance of people and groups engaged in protected political and noncriminal activities. Plaintiffs urge the Attorney General to reject ODOJ’s reliance on the Third Agency Rule as blanket authority to withhold records from the public. The people of Oregon deserve transparency about how state, local, and federal police cooperation affects their rights and freedoms.

The ACLU of Oregon and our legal partners, Visible Law and LeDuc Montgomery LLC, filed to sue the City of Eugene for failing to disclose public records pertaining to the city’s operation of Flock Safety cameras. This lawsuit is filed on behalf of Seth May, a member of Eyes Off Eugene, a group of advocates and technology professionals who are rejecting mass surveillance in Oregon through public education and organized advocacy. Flock cameras are a type of advanced surveillance technology that presents a significant threat to privacy by tracking the movements of every vehicle (and even images of pedestrians, bicyclists, and animals), without a warrant, suspicion, or consent from the public. Flock allows for this personal data to be uploaded to an AI-powered platform that can be accessed by law enforcement and private companies across the country, with little to no regulation. Learn more about Flock’s disturbing web of surveillance and data sharing on our Know Your Tech Flock page. By denying Mr. May’s request and refusing to disclose the requested records, the City violated Oregon public records law. The City of Eugene’s refusal to disclose the records despite the significant public interest in them stands in stark contrast to the transparency that other cities like Springfield, Medford, and Woodburn have provided the public by identifying the locations of Flock cameras without issue. The ACLU of Oregon and our legal partners are representing Mr. May and suing the City of Eugene to ensure that the City of Eugene cannot hide their actions while demanding the public live their lives under the unblinking eyes of Flock.