The City of Cambridge will hold a special public lottery event on Monday, October 5 at 5 p.m. in Cambridge City Hall’s Sullivan Chamber to select the 40 residents who will serve on Cambridge’s first-ever Civic Assembly -- an innovative new community engagement process that will help shape the future of public safety and surveillance technology in Cambridge.
The lottery event will take place immediately before the regular City Council meeting and will also be broadcast live on the
City’s 22 CityView website and cable television channel, giving residents the opportunity to see firsthand – in-person or online -- how the selection process works. All Cambridge residents are encouraged to attend, and to join in the excitement as Cambridge continues to advance this important initiative.
What: Civic Assembly Lottery Selection
When: Monday, October 5 at 5 p.m.
Where: Cambridge City Hall (Sullivan Chamber); 795 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Who: All Cambridge residents are encouraged to attend
During the week of September 7, approximately 15,000 randomly selected Cambridge households (out of approximately 56,000 total households) received Your Voice, Your Cambridge mailed invitations, offering residents ages 16 and older the opportunity to enter the Civic Assembly lottery. Of the households to receive invitations, over 400 entered the lottery. Every neighborhood was represented in the lottery, while additional outreach efforts were conducted to ensure increased participation from neighborhoods most impacted by gun violence.
At 5 p.m., members of the Civic Assembly team will explain the Assembly’s purpose, the recruitment process, and the randomized selection method. Around 5:15 p.m., lottery balls will be drawn to
randomly select the 40 members of the assembly.
About the Cambridge Civic Assembly
Over four Saturdays between October and December 2026, the 40 selected 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 use of gunshot detection systems and video surveillance cameras in Cambridge public parks.
The initiative, which is the first municipal Civic Assembly process to take place in Massachusetts and one of the first in New England, responds to a City Council policy order introduced at a special meeting on July 23, 2026, calling for the City to pilot a community-driven deliberative process focused on public safety. The Civic Assembly is being organized by the City Council and City Manager in collaboration with FIDE North America, a nonprofit specializing in democratic deliberation, and being supported by community partners, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who have faculty that specialize in the random selection of assembly members.
Members of the community can learn more about the Civic Assembly process by visiting
www.cambridgema.gov/civicassembly.
