The town of Barnstable is the latest in Massachusetts caught up in the controversy surrounding Flock cameras — license-plate reading technology that can connect law enforcement to a network of surveillance cameras across the country.
A grassroots effort has grown calling for the town to take four, police-operated cameras down, while town councilors — some admitting they only knew about the town-owned Flock cameras after recent media reports — are calling for at least the suspension of their use while the council considers and enacts a clear policy on the plate readers.
The issue is set to come to a head in the coming days, with organizers planning to protest the cameras’ use at a Barnstable Town Council meeting on Thursday, August 20 and town councilors slated to vote to potentially pause the program in early September.
The local struggle comes amid scrutiny across the state and nation, with at least two Massachusetts towns suspending or getting rid of their Flock cameras following allegations that their police officers misused the cameras to track former romantic partners. Those officers are facing criminal charges.
Local community organizers say that beyond being rife for abuse by officers, they are also concerned about mass surveillance and privacy. The cameras have been used in other states to track people getting abortions and immigrants.
“Flock cameras are bad for everyone,” Barnstable resident Kim Pulsford told CAI. “But specifically what motivated us, it’s really awful that [ICE] would track immigrants just going to work and just be able to track them down, detain them and deport them for no reason.”
Pulsford is part of the effort circulating the petition in Barnstable — which has received over 150 signatures.
Town councilors also have issues with the technology, including Precinct 7 representative Seth Burdick. He said that there are credible privacy concerns as well as legal ambiguity surrounding the nascent technology.
“It's just like any new technology, from margarine to social media, it seems great, it's going to solve all these problems,” Burdick said. “But when it is brand new and you deploy it everywhere, you never know what the unintended consequences are going to be. So does it always make sense to be an early adopter? I don't think so.”
Burdick is working with the town’s legal counsel to draft a resolution that could call for a pause in the town’s use of the cameras while they consider a broader policy. Burdick is especially concerned about the contract the town currently has with Flock, which he says is unlike most any other contract the town has. He notes that the contract is subject to change based on Flock updating its website, without notifying the town.
While Flock cameras have been controversial, there has also been support, especially from local police departments.
Barnstable Police have said that the technology is crucial for solving crime and keeping the department in the modern age.
Barnstable Police Chief Jean Challise declined to comment on the cameras when asked by CAI. But at a hearing in April, Det. Sergeant Kevin Connolly strongly supported the continued use of the technology while giving a presentation on how they work to town councilors.
Connolly said officers use them daily in collecting evidence to prosecute violent offenders. He listed a number of cases where the license-plate readers provided vital information — even helping to catch suspects in cases involving New York and Texas.
But aside from violent crimes, he noted that the cameras are especially important for the department to find missing individuals or residents suffering from mental health crises. In one recent case, he said they received a call about someone who wanted to die by suicide and was carrying two handguns. The individual had left his house by vehicle. Det. Connolly said that the department was able to locate which direction the man had gone with the use of the cameras, and within hours, they were able to find him and get him the help he needed.
“That is the first tool that we go to when we need to help people,” the detective said.
He also provided a snapshot of how frequently they use the data. Over the month of March, the four cameras provided 2.2 million plate reads, and local police searched the database 111 times. Other police were able to access Barnstable’s cameras as well, according to the Provincetown Independent. But Connolly noted at the April hearing that they had disabled the national search option. He said then that they are reviewing the policy, noting that the national search helped the department find suspects outside of town limits. It’s unclear if the national search option has since been turned back on.
At that same April meeting, there was sharp criticism from town councilors.
Councilor Betty Ludtke said the cameras are non-starters because of the ability to track people getting abortions. Flock has a setting that allows officers to search the national database of license plate readings for abortion cases. According to reporting by the New York Times, that setting is only allowed in states where abortions are illegal.
“What sent me through the roof, I see this reproductive care searches — Are you freaking kidding me? Do we want to be with a company that even has that as a setting?” Ludtke said. “That’s disgusting.”
Other councilors raised issues surrounding civil liberties, notably that police do not need a warrant to access the data. Unlike a wire tape or surveillance camera placed near a suspect's home, officers do not need the approval of a judge to review the information gathered by the license plate reading technology. All that is required is a “legitimate law enforcement purpose,” Donnolly noted.
That didn’t sit well with councilor Thomas Keane, who asked the detective who would stand in the way of an officer who wanted to investigate him. When the response was that it was up to the judgement of the officer and the department, Keane noted that could potentially violate someone’s rights.
“It bothers me tremendously that this system can be used without any effort to get a warrant,” Keane said.
