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Record of Proceedings

Health and Safety Committee Meeting: Surveillance Task Force Update – January 28, 2026

Council Committees — Wednesday, January 28, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateWednesday, January 28, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:08:38
Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

0:09

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

0:18

Good morning and welcome to the Health and Safety Committee meeting for January 28th.

0:22

My name is Darrell Watson.

0:23

I'm honored to serve as the chair of this committee, also as the city council member representing the fine District 9.

0:30

We have quite a few city council members in the committee room.

0:33

Why don't we start with introductions, starting from our right, and then we'll go online.

0:38

So we'll start with Council Member Torres.

0:40

Thank you.

0:42

Right and left.

0:43

Yeah, yeah.

0:44

Never thought of ourselves on the right.

0:45

Cue me.

0:46

Cue me.

0:46

Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.

0:48

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

0:49

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

0:52

Laura Vitres, Lucky District 7.

0:54

Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

0:56

I'm pleased to be on the left.

0:59

Cashman, South Denver, District 6.

1:02

Good morning.

1:03

Serena Gonzalez-Gutierrez, one of your council members at large.

1:05

Good morning.

1:06

San about Northwest Denver, District 1.

1:08

And just verifying, do we have someone online?

1:11

Is Council Member Parity online?

1:16

And I'm not the only one.

1:18

Good morning.

1:19

Diana Romero-Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

1:22

Good, both of you. Thank you so much for joining. We have a briefing this morning, an update on

1:30

surveillance task force. And so, Mr. Hoffman, I'll turn it over to you for the presentation and

1:35

introduction. If there are any folks in the audience that you would also like to participate,

1:41

just let us know and they'll be able to come up and speak from the mic. So, over to you.

1:45

Thank you, Committee Chair. Tim Hoffman, I'm in the Mayor's office. I serve as his Director of Policy.

1:49

I want to thank all the members of Council for the opportunity to come back for the second update of the Surveillance Technology Task Force,

1:56

give you a little bit of an update of where we are.

1:58

I know that in the room we have Council Members Gonzalez-Gonizierrez and Flynn, who are members of the task force, and then online Councilwoman Parity.

2:06

So once I quickly tick through the updates that I have, I'd like to give them the opportunity to give their updates or their perspective as well.

2:15

Before anything else, though, I did just want to take one moment to acknowledge someone in the audience here.

2:21

We have Emily Lauck, who's been with the Department of Safety for a good number of years and is tragically, unfortunately, leaving us, I believe, at the end of this week.

2:29

So I wanted to thank Emily for her years of service to the City of Denver.

2:34

And on a very personal note, I'm thrilled.

2:43

Things are going to get better from there, I promise.

2:47

So just a quick agenda for today.

2:49

I want to give a little bit of an update of the task force overview.

2:52

One of the questions or the comments that we heard from the last task force is folks

2:58

wanted to see a full list of who is participating in the task force on the next slide and then

3:04

after that what the overall mission or the goal of the task force is so council president sandoval

3:10

provided some incredibly helpful language that helped frame it i've talked with a couple of

3:14

other folks the the mission statement or the goal is something that from my perspective is is what

3:21

we are aiming towards it hasn't been something that's been signed off on by all and each individual

3:26

task force member. So just wanted to flag that. We'll give a little update on what we've been

3:31

doing so far. I'm going to have Tara Segura in technology services come to the table in a moment.

3:37

She can talk about some of the changes that technology services has already made

3:41

to some of our systems and then talk about where we are going next.

3:48

So here is the full list of representatives of the surveillance technology task force. I won't

3:55

read them individually. But as you can see, we tried to make sure we had a good cross-section

4:01

of agencies from the administration, obviously several city council members, community groups,

4:08

and then other subject matter experts. We have several professors who work either in data,

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Technology and Innovation█████████████████████████████████████████████83%
Public Safety██████11%
Procedural██4%
Community Engagement█2%
Summary of Proceedings

Health and Safety Committee Meeting: Surveillance Task Force Update – January 28, 2026

The Health and Safety Committee of the Denver City Council met on January 28, 2026, to receive an update on the Surveillance Technology Task Force. The meeting was chaired by Council Member Darrell Watson (District 9). The main agenda item was a briefing by Tim Hoffman (Director of Policy, Mayor's Office) and Tara Segura (Technology Services) on the task force's progress, including changes to the city's vendor risk assessment, ongoing work on data protection, and next steps toward a potential surveillance technology ordinance. Council members asked detailed questions about FLOCK data, data retention, contract oversight, and protections for sensitive locations such as reproductive health clinics.

Consent Calendar

  • The chair noted two items on the consent calendar; none were pulled for discussion, and the items were approved without debate.

Discussion Items

  • Task Force Update: Tim Hoffman presented the full membership list of the task force, which includes city council members, administration representatives, community groups, and academic experts. The task force's mission is to create a shared framework and clear standards for surveillance technology. So far, the group has catalogued current policies (e.g., vendor risk assessment, DPD Operations Manual Section 119), conducted a risk assessment identifying 18 risks (e.g., data breaches, misuse by federal agencies), and reviewed mitigation strategies. The task force has also surveyed ordinances from cities such as Seattle, New York, Madison, and Berkeley.
  • Changes to Vendor Risk Assessment: Tara Segura reported that technology services has expanded privacy-related questions in the vendor assessment, added language educating vendors about Denver's records retention obligations (different from GDPR), and implemented breach and remedy language in contracts. A new PII (Personally Identifiable Information) exhibit has been added to all data-related contracts, including a prohibition on sharing data with federal agencies for immigration enforcement. Ongoing vendor management improvements include annual assessments and an innovation portal for city employees.
  • Motorola 911 System Contract: Council Member Torres asked about applying task force lessons to the upcoming Motorola contract for the 911 system. Segura confirmed that Motorola agreed to all contract terms, including the PII exhibit and data access controls, and that the system will meet strict CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Systems) requirements. The data will be owned and controlled by the city.
  • Outstanding FLOCK Questions: Council Member Parity (online) raised outstanding questions about FLOCK's prior data disclosures, including whether FLOCK has ever responded to subpoenas or exigency requests involving Denver data, and requested a narrower review of search logs by Denver-area and federal agencies. Hoffman agreed to follow up with FLOCK.
  • Data Retention and Immigration Enforcement Concerns: Council Members Alvidrez, Romero-Campbell, and Chair Watson expressed concerns about the storage of license plate data for 30 days and potential misuse, particularly in light of increased federal immigration enforcement. Council Member Alvidrez asked whether the city can track current ICE activity and requested statistics on crimes solved with ALPRs. Chief (unidentified) confirmed that data on crime-solving outcomes can be provided.
  • Sensitive Locations: Chair Watson asked about protections for reproductive health clinics and other sensitive sites. Hoffman said the task force is planning to meet with reproductive rights groups. He noted that cameras are on public right-of-way and that any subpoenas for out-of-state abortion-related data would be denied per Denver and Colorado law. Council Member Gonzalez-Gutierrez supported including proximity requirements in a future ordinance.
  • Contract Oversight and Innovation: Council President Sandoval asked about ongoing contract monitoring and partnership with universities for subject matter expertise. Hoffman and Segura described annual vendor assessments, an innovation portal, and collaborations with DU and Bloomberg initiatives. Two professors currently serve on the task force.
  • Request for Council Review of Small Contracts: Council Member Gonzalez-Gutierrez requested that the administration voluntarily bring surveillance technology contracts under $500,000 (which do not require council approval) to council for review, citing the spirit of collaboration. Council Member Flynn added historical context: the FLOCK contract extension was handled below the threshold after the council voted down the original contract in May 2025, per an agreement with the mayor's office. Council President Sandoval disputed being part of that agreement.

Key Outcomes

  • The task force will continue its line-by-line review of surveillance risks and potential ordinance language, aiming to present a more concrete proposal to the committee in one to two months.
  • Hoffman committed to follow up on outstanding FLOCK data requests, including subpoena history and search log details.
  • The administration will provide data on crimes solved using ALPRs and will explore providing information on ICE activity in Denver.
  • Technology services will proceed with the Motorola contract for the 911 system, incorporating the new data protections.
  • The task force will invite reproductive rights organizations to present their concerns at a future meeting.
  • No formal votes were taken; the meeting adjourned after the discussion.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council. Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now. Good morning and welcome to the Health and Safety Committee meeting for January 28th. My name is Darrell Watson. I'm honored to serve as the chair of this committee, also as the city council member representing the fine District 9. We have quite a few city council members in the committee room. Why don't we start with introductions, starting from our right, and then we'll go online. So we'll start with Council Member Torres. Thank you. Right and left. Yeah, yeah. Never thought of ourselves on the right. Cue me. Cue me. Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2. Laura Vitres, Lucky District 7. Amanda Sawyer, District 5. I'm pleased to be on the left. Cashman, South Denver, District 6. Good morning. Serena Gonzalez-Gutierrez, one of your council members at large. Good morning. San about Northwest Denver, District 1. And just verifying, do we have someone online? Is Council Member Parity online? And I'm not the only one. Good morning. Diana Romero-Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. Good, both of you. Thank you so much for joining. We have a briefing this morning, an update on surveillance task force. And so, Mr. Hoffman, I'll turn it over to you for the presentation and introduction. If there are any folks in the audience that you would also like to participate, just let us know and they'll be able to come up and speak from the mic. So, over to you. Thank you, Committee Chair. Tim Hoffman, I'm in the Mayor's office. I serve as his Director of Policy. I want to thank all the members of Council for the opportunity to come back for the second update of the Surveillance Technology Task Force, give you a little bit of an update of where we are. I know that in the room we have Council Members Gonzalez-Gonizierrez and Flynn, who are members of the task force, and then online Councilwoman Parity. So once I quickly tick through the updates that I have, I'd like to give them the opportunity to give their updates or their perspective as well. Before anything else, though, I did just want to take one moment to acknowledge someone in the audience here. We have Emily Lauck, who's been with the Department of Safety for a good number of years and is tragically, unfortunately, leaving us, I believe, at the end of this week. So I wanted to thank Emily for her years of service to the City of Denver. And on a very personal note, I'm thrilled. Things are going to get better from there, I promise. So just a quick agenda for today. I want to give a little bit of an update of the task force overview. One of the questions or the comments that we heard from the last task force is folks wanted to see a full list of who is participating in the task force on the next slide and then after that what the overall mission or the goal of the task force is so council president sandoval provided some incredibly helpful language that helped frame it i've talked with a couple of

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