Testing criteria has been updated please see below.  Positive cases are going up, criteria for testing has been updated. Sometimes symptoms can be very mild. 

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Governor Michael J. Dunleavy – Press Briefing on COVID-19

April 6, 2020 5 pm

Governor Mike Dunleavy, Alaska public health officials, and incident command staff give an update on the COVID-19 outbreak in Alaska.  The Samaritans Purse aircraft carried about 18 thousand pounds of medical equipment ready for the outbreak of COVID-19 into our villages.  We understand the healthcare limitations in rural Alaska, the National Guard is ready to help if needed in these remote communities across Alaska.

 

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DHSS Press Release: One new death and 14 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Alaska

Alaska DHSS sent this bulletin at 04/05/2020 04:16 PM AKDT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:   Clinton Bennett, DHSS, (907) 269-4996, clinton.bennett@alaska.gov One new death and 14 new cases of COVID-19 announced in Alaska April 5, 2020 ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) today announced one new death and 14 new cases of COVID-19 in four Alaska communities – Anchorage (4), Fairbanks (7), Juneau (2) and Seward (1). This brings the total case count in Alaska to 185. These new cases and the new death were reported from 12:00 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. on April 4 and reflect data posted at noon today on coronavirus.alaska.gov. This new reporting schedule for Alaska’s COVID-19 cases began on Thursday with the rollout of a new data dashboard. The person who died is a 71-year-old Anchorage resident who acquired the infection outside of Alaska, tested positive on March 28 and had been hospitalized in state. The patient had preexisting health conditions. Also of note today is that one of the Anchorage cases is a staff member at the McLaughlin Youth Center (MYC) within the DHSS Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Since learning of the positive test result, DJJ Director Tracy Dompeling has been in close contact with the Alaska Section of Epidemiology and the Anchorage Health Department to facilitate contact investigations. DJJ is implementing all recommended and necessary protective measures for both staff and residents. “We express our condolences to the family and loved ones of the Anchorage resident who died and is included in our case count today. Our thoughts are with them,” said DHSS Commissioner Adam Crum. “Regarding the situation at McLaughlin, please know DJJ is working closely with state and local public health officials to ensure that MYC residents, staff and anyone who may have been in contact with this positive case is aware of this situation and knows what we plan to do.” Because all of the DJJ facilities around Alaska are 24-hour facilities, operations cannot cease and all employees cannot be sent home to telecommute. Additional measures being taken to safely staff the facility at this time include: Bringing in state and local public health officials to assist with testing and contact investigations. Prioritized testing for staff and clients. Sending home staff members from the affected unit who likely had contact with the individual who tested positive. DHSS remains committed to protecting the health and safety of staff and residents at all DJJ facilities. Since March 27, before this positive case occurred, DJJ had already suspended in-person visitation for family members and religious volunteers, providing visitation and services through electronic means. Other measures already in place at the facility include frequent handwashing, routine disinfection of high-touch surfaces and encouraging staff members who are sick to stay home. Of the new cases from yesterday that are reported today, five are male and nine are female. Two cases are aged 10-19, three are aged 30-39, one is aged 40-49, three are aged 50-59, three are aged 60-69 and two are aged 70-79. A total of 20 people cumulatively have ever been hospitalized in Alaska; four new hospitalizations have been added in the past 24-hour reporting period. Stay informed Alaska’s Response Find more information about how to keep yourself and your family healthy at the DHSS webpage, coronavirus.alaska.gov Visit the governor’s webpage on COVID-19 at gov.alaska.gov/covid19news Visit ready.alaska.gov/covid19 on the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management webpage for Unified Command information, community press releases and other documents. United States Response The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads the U.S. response. Global Response The World Health Organization guides the global response.   ###

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Alaska now has police departments making decisions to acquire and use surveillance technologies without notifying the public or their elected officials. Governmental transparency seems to go against the grain of established law enforcement protocols. Here’s the latest from Amazon Ring on its collaboration with Alaskan police agencies:

• October 15th, 2019 – Seward Police Department activated Amazon Ring Partnership 
• November 21st, 2019 – Valdez Police Department activated Amazon Ring Partnership 

A growing concern related to the debate on informed consent and disclosure is whether or not there was public notification or city council discussion before the activation of the Amazon Ring surveillance partnership in the city of Seward. Disturbingly, a review of local council meetings, newspaper articles, and social media around the date of activation shows no interaction or communication with the public about a partnership. 

Seward Police Department Mission Statement:

The Seward Police Department is dedicated to providing honest, efficient, and effective Law Enforcement Services.

We are committed to providing the highest quality of service, preserving human rights, lives and property, and working in partnership with our citizens to meet the challenges of reducing crime and encouraging voluntary compliance with all laws.

Valdez Police Department Mission Statement:

“Our mission is to provide excellent service and protection through leadership and partnership with the community“

City councils and governing bodies should be empowered to decide if and how surveillance technologies are used. This requires public input over those decisions. Disclosure and assessment are fundamental tenets and expectations of our American government at all levels, from a nationwide vantage point to the smallest towns and cities. Yet, the behavior of our local police is not unique; surveillance partnerships are a growing trend.

As Evan Greer, the Deputy Director of Fight for the Future portends, “Amazon’s privately-owned surveillance dragnet is expanding incredibly quickly, with zero public discussion, oversight, or accountability. Local elected officials should act immediately to review existing partnerships and prevent law enforcement agencies from entering into future ones without community discussion and oversight.”

Alaskans pride themselves on privacy and independence. Privacy is specifically mentioned in our Alaska State Constitution as a defined right. The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports only 11 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Washington) have specific provisions relating to or referencing a right to privacy.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/privacy-protections-in-state-constitutions.aspx

§ 22. Right of Privacy

The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed. The legislature shall implement this section. [Amended 1972]

Our Government’s access and use of personally-owned surveillance cameras erode our privacy. For many, it’s disheartening to witness two powerful institutions in Alaska (Amazon and local law enforcement) so actively and concertedly pursue their mutual interest in Alaskan communities with unregulated surveillance.

Amazon, in the last week of August 2019, agreed to share publicly a list of where it has police partnerships. At that time, there were 405 such agreements. As of November 15th, however, that map now boasts 630 police partnerships which is a 50% increase.

Your Privacy vs. Amazon Ring

According to Amazon, the fault lies with the consumer and the police departments. In the pair of replies (PDF 1, PDF 2) to U.S. Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) dated October 10th, 2019, Ring repeatedly deflects responsibility for the contents of consumers’ personal footage and the police departments that covertly acquire the videos absent consumer knowledge. 

Senator Markey question to Amazon Ring shared below, please see linked PDF  for full response:

Question: Please describe what procedures and requirements, if any, prohibit law enforcement from issuing widespread requests for footage throughout a neighborhood without any evidence that access to this footage will help address a specific crime. 

Section 1, bullet 2 Answer by Amazon “• local police can only ask for videos in an area covering a minimum 0.025 square miles (to avoid targeting specific residents) and a maximum of 0.5 square miles;” Full Response

Because of the state’s size, and platting and zoning ordinances often requiring dispersed property lines and distance between dwellings, making the .025 minimum square miles to avoid targeting specific residents becomes nearly impossible. Police will know who they are targeting in many of our rural neighborhoods. As for regulations and statutes on the partnership between Ring and local police as stated above, I am not aware of any regulations.

If the police have probable cause to believe a camera contains evidence of a crime, and upon being solicited for said video footage the owner refuses to turn it over, most would assume an officer must go to a judge to secure a warrant.  Surprisingly, this isn’t the policy with Amazon Ring because it is part of a cloud-connected network. The release of Ring video footage and data to a law enforcement agency is at the discretion of the company and the police agency will need a case number to access the portal. A case number is not a warrant. In the document on Ring Support, Law Enforcement Legal Process Guidelines, it states under Other Information: “Ring reserves the right to provide information to law enforcement, without legal process, in order to respond to an imminent threat of harm to any person.” If Ring decides to release your personal video footage – they can, and you won’t even know. Amazon’s policy leaves customers vulnerable to the capture of personal information with little recourse and minimal disclosure.

What’s worse, Ring’s terms of service allow for such undivulged personal information access. BuzzFeed pointed out earlier this year:

“You hereby grant Ring and its licensees an unlimited, irrevocable, fully paid and royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide right to re-use, distribute, store, delete, translate, copy, modify, display, sell, create derivative works from and otherwise exploit such Shared Content for any purpose and in any media formats in any media channels without compensation to you.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation have repeatedly expressed concerns about Ring, facial recognition technology, and both technologies used in parity. Ring is exploring the use of facial recognition as a new feature to be released in the coming years. Staff attorney Mohammad Tajsar of the ACLU of Southern California told the Associated Press that the potential for facial recognition in Ring products raises significant concerns. “Even if you don’t sell data or provide data to law enforcement, you’re creating a mechanism whereby people can express latent biases and racism and classism in a portal that encourages it.” 

The underlying policy concern remains the question of how we promote transparency, the public’s welfare, civil rights, and civil liberties in all decisions regarding the funding, acquisition, company partnership, and deployment of surveillance equipment by local police departments. Shouldn’t the public and city councils have a say and be afforded input on the record?

Included in this article is the November 2019 Seward City Council public testimony of Carolyn Roemer, who was the first speaker for testimony starting approximately two minutes into the video. As Roemer reminds, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Her heartfelt and concerned account of how the Seward Police Department partnered with Ring absent public involvement or discussion with the city council motivated me to write this second article.

Intriguingly, I discovered now a second Alaskan police office, in the City of Valdez, is partnering with Amazon Ring. Alaskans should be apprised of the fact the Ring, and future personal and publicly used technologies, are being incorporated into local law enforcement’s arsenal of criminal investigation and evidentiary tools. Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of citizens to safeguard civil liberties. Surveillance partnerships that happen without the involvement of elected officials run roughshod over the safeguards in our local communities, state constitution, and civil rights. And it’s doubtful, at the end of the day, that anyone wants this outcome.

By Sarah Paulus

Local Alaskan
paulus.designs@gmail.com

Note: Seward Police had not responded to emailed questions sent two weeks ago concerning the partnership with Ring at the time of this publication.

 Other Related News Articles on Amazon Ring Police Partnership

Amazon Ring blasted over lack of privacy, civil liberties …

SENATORS PRESS AMAZON FOR ANSWERS ON RING’S SLOPPY SECURITY PRACTICES

Website Calls for Investigation of Ring, Gets Blocked by Facebook

Investigate Amazon Website

Senators ask Bezos for answers on how Amazon’s smart doorbells retain videos and personal data

Amazon’s Ring doorbell camera is pretty much the Trojan horse of home privacy

Police can keep Ring camera video forever and share with whomever they’d like, Amazon tells senator

Amazon has considered facial recognition in its Ring doorbells

Cited Sources

“Should You Buy a Ring Doorbell Camera?” American Civil Liberties Union, October 11th 2019,
https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/should-you-buy-ring-doorbell-camera.

City Council Meeting. “Facebook.” Facebook Watch, Seward Civic Engagement , November 25th 2019, www.facebook.com/SewardCivics/videos/797438604040279/UzpfSTMwNDgxMjUzMDI4NjgyMzpWSzoxMDI5NjQxODg0MDQzMTcw/

Alaska Constitution “Article 1 – Declaration of Rights.” Justia Law,
law.justia.com/constitution/alaska/constitution-1.html.

“Amazon Says It’s Considered Face Scanning in Ring Doorbells.” KTLA, November 20th. 2019,
ktla.com/2019/11/20/amazon-says-its-considered-face-scanning-in-ring-doorbells/.

Buzzfeed https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/amazon-ring-doorbell-company-using-security-footage-for-ads

Cox, Kate. “It’s the User’s Fault If a Ring Camera Violates Your Privacy, Amazon Says.” Ars Technica, November 20th. 2019, arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/cops-can-keep-ring-footage-forever-share-it-with-anyone-amazon-confirms/.

Letter to Senator Markey, November 1st 2019, www.markey.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Response%20Letter_Ring_Senator%20Markey%2011.01.2019.pdf.

The post Amazon Partnerships Raise Privacy Concerns in Alaska appeared first on Alaska Politics and Elections.

Do the citizens of Seward realize this?  Do the local politicians?  Has anyone even discussed this arrangement locally?  Worst of all, do we want to see Alaska, starting with Seward, become a surveillance state? Alaskans have always prided themselves on independence and freedom, and yet here we are on the front lines. Do we want police to have access to personal surveillance systems at the click of a button?

Seward Police Department, activation date October 15th, 2019. Seward PD is the first police department in the State of Alaska to start working with Amazon on citizen surveillance.

Pro civil liberty advocates are raising the red flags on privacy issues as the tech giant Amazon gathers video, audio, and facial recognition data from its devices. This story broke big across the United States earlier this year when it was discovered that Amazon has been marketing the devices and technology to police departments across the nation — turning police into de facto advertising firms for Amazon’s products and services. Will Seward PD do promotions for Amazon Ring, as seen in other departments across the lower 48?

Amazon Ring provided a Neighbors Law Enforcement Map to the Washington Post, showing all activated police partnerships with the company. The map had no entries for Alaska.  Just to make sure, I contacted the Anchorage Police Department (APD) in August and was assured by MJ Thim, the communications director at APD via email that “We have not partnered with Ring.”

After this communication with APD, I discovered a new star over Alaska and it was the Seward Police Department, activation date October 15th, 2019. Seward PD is the first police department in the State of Alaska to start working with Amazon on citizen surveillance.

The Seward Journal, Seward Police Department Facebook page, and Community of Seward Website page say absolutely nothing about this new partnership. This is very surprising to me and a bit disturbing because of the access the Amazon Ring provides for law enforcement and how the police version of the neighborhood apps works.

Control the Narrative

We do not yet know if this working arrangement with Seward Police Department is operational yet.  It may be waiting for the green light from Amazon.  According to the Ring representative letter below Amazon works very hard to make the partnership and promo not appear to be a paired event, even though it really looks like it is. These subsidy programs work well for Amazon as the primary beneficiary of police now advocating for their equipment to the public. The Houston Police last March ran a promotional deal funded by Amazon with free Ring devices. Citizens using Ring had to sign up for the Ring video recording plan paying a small fee of $3/month to Amazon.  This agreement also allows local police to have access to the collected data on request.

Taken from the Houston Police Promo

“Ring has graciously donated several Ring doorbell cameras to the Westside Division and your neighborhood “Briarwood” has been chosen to receive these doorbell cameras for free. There is limit amount of cameras to give out and there some requirements to receive the free Ring doorbell camera. The requirements on getting a free Ring doorbell are, you must have Wi-Fi internet service, sign up for the Ring video recording plan for a Small FEE ($30 a year or $3 a month), agree to allow HPD to access the cameras when a crime occurs when we request it, and must place the doorbell where it has a good sight picture.“

Ring Doorbell Cameras!

Police Officer Q.T. Vu from Houston Police · 29 Mar  link to story

Amazon Ring isn’t going to stop your packages from being stolen, car being broken into, or bike from disappearing. What it will do is allow you, Amazon, and local law enforcement to see a video of it.

There is no statistical data that we can find as yet that shows this partnership makes neighborhoods safer. Amazon Ring also records everyone who visits your house, what is said, and what its camera sees. There is a reason Amazon is a trillion-dollar company.  As we have seen with Google and Facebook, if you don’t know what the product it in the online world, YOU are the product.  Our local police departments are now working with Amazon to sell Ring and the surveillance on your home it gathers.  This is not necessarily a positive activity for personal privacy.  Perhaps we should pump the brakes on this a bit.

It appears that Amazon controls the narrative and pre-writes almost all of the messages shared by the police across social media.  Is this why we have yet to hear from Seward on their new partnership?

For instance, for nearly three weeks in June, the Boca Raton Police Department was engaged in a partnership with Ring that went publicly unreported. The delay in announcing the city’s deal with Ring occurred at the company’s request. Emails show that Ring was interested in keeping the public’s attention focused on a separate subsidy deal it struck with the city designed, according to the city’s press release, to “incentivize the purchase of Ring Video Doorbells and Ring security devices.” (Two hundred residents were slated to receive $100 discounts on Ring doorbell cameras.) Keeping the department’s use of the portal under wraps, a Ring representative said, would help give the subsidy program “full public attention and greatest chance for success.”” Dell Cameron  7/30/19 5:34PM

Ring Representatives Email to Boca Raton Police Department

Safety vs Freedom

“I would say to anybody who thinks this is another case of Big Brother watching or us trying to invade privacy, go to step one: it took the consumer to invest in the product,” he said. “They chose to pay for a service that enables it to be viewed by either us or Ring. The consumer knows what they’re getting into… If you’re a good upstanding person who is doing things lawfully, nobody has concerns.” said Tony Botti, public information officer for the Fresno Sheriff’s Office, after partnering with Amazon.

Typically, there is a willingness on the part of the community to help with investigations, Botti added. However, he noted there is a workaround if a resident happens to reject a police request. If a community member doesn’t want to supply a Ring video that seems vital to a local law enforcement investigation, they can simply contact Amazon, which will then supply the video on request.  If the customer deletes it, they are only deleting their view of it, as the data remains on the cloud. This is entirely legal because cloud-stored data isn’t protected the same way wiretapping is.

“If we ask within 60 days of the recording and as long as it’s been uploaded to the cloud, then Ring can take it out of the cloud and send it to us legally so that we can use it as part of our investigation,” he said.

Typically, this shouldn’t be necessary, Botti said. According to what police have been told by Amazon, most people “play ball” because they want their community to be a safer place, he said, trading liberty for safety and in the end getting neither.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.  4^th Amendment

As far as I can tell, residents of Seward didn’t ask to be the tip of the personal data / privacy rights spear or even join that argument.  But today, you appear to be just that, as Amazon picked your community for the initial test for this sort of joint corporate – local government surveillance in Alaska.  Now that you have a new mayor, maybe it would be good time to at least ask Mayor Christy Terry about the new partnership your law enforcement is involved in.

Ultimately, the public needs complete transparency about what this partnership so they can make an informed decision about how much audio, video, and personal data from your front door that you want stored in their corporate servers to be available upon request to local law enforcement.

By Sarah Paulus

Local Alaskan
paulus.designs@gmail.com

Cited Stories:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2019/08/06/heres-how-amazons-ring-doorbell-police-partnership-affects-you/#3f3422c967a6

One Great Benjamin Franklin Quote About Liberty And Safety. https://wisdomquotes.com/liberty-safety-benjamin-franklin/

Ring Doorbell Cameras! (Houston Police) — Nextdoor. https://nextdoor.com/agency-post/tx/houston/houston-police/ring-doorbell-cameras-106854768/

Is the Amazon Surveillance Machine Secretly Infiltrating …. http://humansarefree.com/2019/08/is-amazon-surveillance-machine-secretly.html

Everything American Cops Say About Amazon’s Ring Is …. https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/07/everything-cops-say-about-amazons-ring-is-scripted-or-approved-by-ring/

Amazon’s Ring Video Camera Alarms Privacy Advocates. https://www.govtech.com/security/Amazons-Ring-Video-Camera-Alarms-Privacy-Advocates.html

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Mr. Walker, a 63-year-old businessman and lawyer who last held elective office in the 1970s, as mayor of the small town of Valdez, was running as an independent candidate with no party, little money and almost no chance of victory going into that holiday weekend two months before Election Day, people in both parties said.

The incumbent governor, Sean Parnell, a Republican in a right-leaning state, was facing two opponents on the ballot – Mr. Walker and a Democrat, Byron Mallott – who would most likely split the state’s moderates and liberals. And he had the wind in his sails, with support for Republicans here and across the nation surging. Re-election to a second full term looked like a walk.

But that Friday morning, just a few days before a state deadline to make any changes to the ballot, Mr. Walker missed his flight from Anchorage for a campaign swing to the rural community of Bethel, in far western Alaska, where he would have no cellphone coverage. As he fumed at the airport, he called Mr. Mallott.

Was there any way, he asked, they might combine forces? “I told him I wanted to be able to look at my supporters on Nov. 4 and say I did everything I could,” Mr. Walker said in an interview.

Mr. Mallott, 71, a Native Alaskan of Tlingit heritage, and a former mayor of Juneau, had been soul searching on his own. He had taken a long walk alone near his home, he said in an interview, and concluded that neither he nor Mr. Walker had any hope of winning alone. But he was also suddenly resolved that defeating Mr. Parnell, who turned 52 after the election, was an absolute priority, and that together they might have a chance.

So in what may be perhaps the great thunderclap example of ego-control in the 2014 elections, in this or any state, Mr. Mallott said he would forfeit the Democratic Party nomination for governor and join forces with Mr. Walker on the independent ballot line as Mr. Walker’s lieutenant governor candidate.

Read more…

image credit nytimes.com

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Anchorage residents are typically digging themselves out this time of year as the area sees around 17 inches of powder, the Associated Press reports.

Strangely, the Last Frontier city has seen less than 4 inches, but because the snow fell last month, the sun has melted it already due to increased temperatures in the region.

Locals have been donning roller skis — or leaving town to find snowy slopes elsewhere.

Around 50 percent of the US has seen snowfall this week, according to the National Weather Service.

In addition, every single state in the country, including Hawaii, registered temperatures below freezing. This is all thanks to Arctic air bearing down on the warmer Great Lakes — producing what’s known as lake-effect snows.

See Full Story at NYPost.com

image credit nypost.com

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Americans expect police to carry guns. In most places, it’s just assumed that law enforcement is always armed. But not everywhere.

One of the last exceptions to the rule is the native communities of rural Alaska, such as Manokotak, a Yupik village of about 400 in southwest Alaska. Hunters and fishermen live there in modest houses huddled along a few roads.

This remoteness affects how Myers does his job. He works alone. If he wants backup, he has to wait for armed state troopers to fly in, weather permitting. Given this isolation, he has come to realize that his most important law enforcement tool is his mouth.

“How well can you speak to an individual, how can you talk them down, can you make them understand common sense?” Myers says. “If you can get somebody to understand common sense, they’re going to follow along with you.”

But this kinder, gentler form of policing isn’t foolproof. Sometimes, you get someone who simply won’t listen to reason.

Monegan is part native Alaskan, and he had a long career in policing. He was also chief of police in Anchorage. He says big city cops could learn something from the village public safety officers.

See Full Story at NPR.org

image credit npr.org

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