City of Cambridge Launching Its First Civic Assembly on Surveillance Technology

The City of Cambridge is launching a brand new community engagement process to help shape the future of public safety and surveillance technology. Beginning the week of September 7, approximately 15,000 randomly selected Cambridge households will receive mailed invitations entitled "Your Voice, Your Cambridge" and have an opportunity to serve on the City's first-ever Civic Assembly. This will be the first municipal Civic Assembly process to be held in Massachusetts and one of the first in New England.

A Civic Assembly is a demographically representative group of residents 16 years of age or older, who are selected through a randomized lottery. Household members who receive an invitation in the mail are strongly encouraged to sign up for the lottery. Prior experience or knowledge about public safety or technology is not necessary. Perspective and experience as members of the Cambridge community are most valued in this process.

Over four Saturdays between October-December 2026, Assembly members will learn from independent experts, deliberate together, and develop recommendations for the City Council on the future of public safety and surveillance technology, including the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter and video surveillance cameras in Cambridge public parks. A $1,000 stipend and accommodations to allow Assembly members to fully participate will be provided.

"The Civic Assembly process is a practical way to bring diverse voices together to learn, discuss, and advise on complex issues," said Cambridge City Manager Yi An Huang. "We're deeply committed to transparent and inclusive engagement with residents. Having members representative of our community set the direction for technologies that have generated widespread discussion is very compelling to the City. I'm excited about the prospects of this process and how it can shape important decision-making."

This initiative responds to a City Council policy order that was initially introduced at a special meeting on July 23, 2026 and requested that the City pilot a Civic Assembly that would produce public safety-related recommendations to the City Council. Read the policy order.

"We've spent the summer in conversation with residents across Cambridge, and one thing has been clear: making our city safe for everyone is a shared priority," said Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui. "Launching a Civic Assembly gives us an opportunity to continue the conversation around public safety and surveillance technologies, and to build on the City's community engagement operations, which have grown tremendously in recent years. The decisions we make touch all corners of our community, and we must foster healthy discourse and incorporate community input into decision-making."

An initiative of Cambridge City Council and City Manager, the Civic Assembly is being organized in collaboration with FIDE North America, an independent, non-profit organization specializing in deliberative democracy and Civic Assemblies. FIDE North America is helping the City design, plan, and implement the Civic Assembly. The FIDE team is working under the direction of the City's Director of Community Engagement Jackson Price, in coordination with City and local partners, throughout the design, implementation, and reporting phases of the process.

How Civic Assembly Selection Works

The selection process will begin next week, when the City mails 15,000 invitations to randomly chosen Cambridge households. One recipient per household can then enter a lottery to be chosen for the assembly. After collecting all invitation responses, the City will select assembly members (the "panel") by lottery. The panel will satisfy representation requirements ensuring it reflects Cambridge's population demographically and will include a diversity of lived experiences related to the assembly focus.

This two-stage process - invitations mailed to random households and the selection of the panel by lottery - helps to ensure that everyone who enters has a chance to be selected.

The randomized invitations and lottery system is a proven procedure that is based on years of research (led in part by local researchers at Harvard and MIT). Once the official panel is drawn, volunteers on the selected panel are notified, and the assembly can begin. In total, 40 residents will participate in the Assembly.

To make participation possible, the City will offer $1,000 stipends and provide other accommodations, including child care, interpretation and translations.

Meetings will be available to the public and minutes will be posted online. All Civic Assembly materials - including agendas, briefings, speaker lists, and recommendations - will be published at www.cambridgema.gov/civicassembly. Residents who are not selected can stay involved by attending public briefings, submitting comments, and following weekly updates.

Key Dates

• Invitations mailed: Week of September 7
• Response deadline: Sunday, September 27
• Participants Notified: No later than Saturday, October 10
• Assembly sessions: Four sessions on Saturdays (October 24, November 7, November 21, December 5)
• Recommendations delivered to City Council: December 2026

To learn more about the Cambridge Civic Assembly process, please visit www.cambridgema.gov/civicassembly, email [email protected], or call (617) 349-5580.