CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that the Concord Police Department does not have to divulge information about its “covert communications equipment.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and the Concord Monitor filed the lawsuit after receiving the redacted license agreement through a public records request. They say the public has a right to know what the equipment is, what it does and the name of the city’s vendor.
The Valley News reports that a divided court upheld most of the city’s redactions to the license agreement with the unnamed vendor this week because revealing more “could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law by allowing individuals to learn about the surveillance technology and take evasive measures against it.”
Concord City Manager Tom Aspell said the city is pleased with the decision because it upholds and preserves the law enforcement exemption under New Hampshire’s right to know law.
ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Henry Klementowicz said they’re disappointed in the court’s decision to permit the city “to hold a one-sided evidentiary hearing and keep secret the details of equipment that police are using in New Hampshire.”
The court ruled that a few redactions on the license agreement should be removed since some of that information had been made public already.
In 2019, the proposed police budget had a $5,100 line item for “covert secret communications” that the city would not discuss.
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