Lawrence deserves transparency.

In late 2024, the City of Lawrence adopted the Fusus real-time surveillance platform on the consent agenda, without public discussion.When residents discovered the full scope of the contract, which included controversial AI analytics, ALPR integrations, and public-private camera networks, as revealed through a Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request, community pressure won a pause on further integrations and directed the Lawrence Police Department to collaborate with the community on creating oversight.We are now focused on securing a permanent, transparent framework that governs how surveillance technology is approved and used in Lawrence.

The Lawrence Transparency Project is organizing to:

✅Put Fusus on the agenda
🟨Pause the integrations (?)
⬜Adopt durable oversight

• 📄 Read the Draft Ordinance
• 📝 Share Your Feedback
• 📄 View Police Military Surplus Proposal
• ✅ Contact Your Commission!
• 🔍Our KORA Library

• ✍️ Press Kit
• ✖️ Fusus Contract (KORA Request)

You showed up in person, online, submitted written comments, and emailed your commissioners and the item was pulled from the consent agenda.As a result, LKPD agreed to City Manager approval for acquisitions valued $25,000-$99,999, Commission approval for anything $100,000 or more, and public reporting on all procurements regardless of value.This is a win for transparency. But it requires vigilance. The program itself is a collaboration with a federal government that is surveilling and attacking our communities.And it's also a reminder that the city commission still doesn't have a formal process for decisions like this one. That's what our draft Lawrence Technology Ordinance is designed to fix: locking in existing protections, requiring public approval before new surveillance tech is adopted, and creating ongoing accountability with a citizen advisory committee and annual public dashboard.

We were wrong to focus only on an oversight ordinance.

For months, the Lawrence Transparency Project asked for one reasonable thing: a binding Surveillance Technology Oversight Ordinance. We delivered a full proposal to LKPD in November 2025. Six months later, silence.Instead of feedback, the department created an internal workgroup to oversee itself.
The community working group the City Commission ordered in September 2025 still does not exist.
Major surveillance tools (Axon Fusus, ALPRs, Boston Dynamics robots, AI analytics) have been adopted through consent agendas with no public input.We assumed good faith. That was our mistake.Oversight alone won’t work when the department refuses to participate. A single ordinance won’t stop a pattern of secrecy and delay. We need more than a policy. We need everyone, and we need every tactic.

The new reality

We still believe in the work we have done with Kansas Open Records Act and Draft Ordinance. However, if Lawrence wants to stop unaccountable surveillance, we need all hands on deck. The Lawrence Transparency Project is one part of a broader movement for transparency, accountability, and a community that doesn't put our neighbors at risk of criminal, racist federal enforcement.Every piece of surveillance technology must be reviewed for how it serves us.

What we are calling for now

Disable ALPRs now, on patrol cars and on fixed poles at the edges of town. This technology creates a surveillance dragnet of every person on the road and puts marginalized members of our community at risk.Stop all integrations of LKPD cameras into the Axon Fusus platform. Fusus creates a unified real-time surveillance grid. That includes private cameras, downtown cameras, and ALPR data. No more.Revisit the downtown camera system with a full community review. Is this something Lawrence wants?A full public inventory of every surveillance and tactical technology currently in use or under acquisition and a vote from the commission to justify and authorize each one, including drones, robots, AI analytics, and any integration tools.Public adoption of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Ordinance, with or without the department’s participation, on a timeline the Commission sets.Immediate formation of the community working group the Commission ordered in September 2025. Not another internal police workgroup.

• 📝 Open Letter

📰 Read the News Coverage

• • Advocates’ draft ordinance aims to put safeguards on Lawrence police camera surveillance tech
• • Lawrence community members ask city commission to reconsider police camera integration program
• • Petition garners signatures pushing back on Lawrence police camera integration program
• • Experts warn of expanding surveillance as Lawrence police adopt camera integration system
• • Lawrence police program asks residents, businesses to register security cameras for police use
• • Kincaid Dennett: Program giving Lawrence police access to cameras needs review, transparency (Column)