Good reporting, though I wish the author wouldn't bury the most important paragraph at the end of a longish piece.
This is not a purely local issue. It's a coordinated Federal surveillance program masquerading as a local initiative.
If federally funded, locally built surveillance systems with
little to no oversight can dump their information in a fusion
center—think of it as a gun show for surveillance, where agencies
freely swap information with little restriction or
oversight—that could allow federal agencies such as the FBI and
the NSA to do an end-run around any limitations set by Congress
or the FISA court.
Federal government will say it's a local issue, talk to SPD. SPD will eventually cite confidentiality agreements with Aruba Networks. When pressed, one of them will provide outdated and/or incomplete data citing jurisdictional boundaries and pleading lack of technical resources to adequately address the request.
They've already repeated the drone playbook, public apologies and assertions that only certain capabilities will be used.
Your answer sounds suspiciously like "give up before trying". I say the correct answer is try, and if you're thwarted, think about it and try some more.
If anyone is interested in getting involved, you can call or email the EFF. [1] They've done stuff like this before, and they'll help you get started. If you want someone else to get involved, donate to the EFF. [2] Or even the ACLU [3], because they'll eventually be the ones to defend some victim of the system.
This is not a purely local issue. It's a coordinated Federal surveillance program masquerading as a local initiative.