A Flock Camera spotted along one of Tallahassee’s tree lined streets (Jonathan R.M. Charles / FAMUAN)
Tallahassee’s usage of Flock cameras have been suspended, but there remains a crucial divide as the city’s November election looms.
Some candidates want the cameras removed to protect residents’ privacy, while an incumbent commissioner says stronger guidelines on usage of the cameras might eventually allow the technology to be used again.
The City Commission voted unanimously on Sept. 9 to suspend roughly 150 automated license plate readers, including Flock and Motorola cameras.
A separate proposal to cover and remove them proposed by Commissioner Matlow failed 3-2. The vote suspended the readers but did not remove every mounted camera or shut down other types of public-safety cameras. The readers record information about passing vehicles that police can utilize during investigations.
During the Sept. 9 city commission meeting, a number of residents raised alarm about potential privacy concerns. Among them was David Derby, who raised concerns about potential abuse of Flock camera data by police officers.
“I understand, as one of my officers explained to me, its a tool in their tool belt. But the tool is too easily abused,” Derby said. “I think this is a little bit of overreach … it’s turning us into a surveillance state.”
Other residents including Abdelilah Skhir, a senior strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union raised practical concerns.
“Every time we drive to a doctor’s office, a place of worship or a friend’s home, we leave a trail. And the issue isn’t just one snapshot. It’s that enough snapshots can create a map of your life.” Skhir said. “This inescapable network of surveillance gives police around the country the power to track our movements without a warrant.”
A view of a Flock Camera in Tallahassee (Jonathan R.M. Charles / FAMUAN)
Before the suspension vote, Tallahassee Police Chief Lawrence Revell defended the technology, saying it had helped his department solve serious crimes quickly and locate missing children. He said he understood residents’ concerns but believed the answer was proper oversight of the technology, training and regular checks of who used the system and for what purpose.
“Transparency is critically important,” Revell said. He said the department had audited its use of the cameras and found no local misuse.
The city and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office launched public portals in August showing information about license plate reads, searches and alerts.
City Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who is running for mayor, said those measures do not resolve his central concern: a system that can record where residents travel without their being suspected of a crime.
He wants Tallahassee to end its Flock contract entirely and take down the cameras instead of leaving them suspended.
“I don’t see any system that shares data of the people who live in Tallahassee with people outside of Tallahassee” Matlow said. He said police should use other available tactics to solve crimes. He also wants previously collected data deleted completely.
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox, who originally voted against removing the Flock cameras, said she initially focused on the technology’s ability to help solve crimes.
After hearing residents’ concerns and speaking with law enforcement and legislators, she said she became more concerned about a private company collecting information on residents unconnected to criminal investigations as they went about their daily lives.
“We want to protect our community,” she said. “We also want to protect the privacy of our residents as well.”
A closeup of a Flock Camera (Jonathan R.M. Charles / FAMUAN)
Williams-Cox made the motion to suspend the readers, but she has not called for their permanent removal. She wants to learn whether stronger regulations could permit their use without compromising residents’ privacy.
When asked what specific policy she would propose, she said she would need to study the issue further.
Former Mayor Dot Inman-Johnson, who is challenging Williams-Cox for City Commission Seat 5, rejects that approach. She said the suspension leaves open a path to restarting the cameras and that she would push to ban and remove them if elected. The two face each other in the November election.
“If I’m elected, well, I would push to ban them completely,” Inman-Johnson said. She said officials should have demanded evidence of a measurable crime-prevention benefit before approving the readers.
While Williams-Cox said the suspended cameras are no longer transmitting data, Matlow and Inman-Johnson both want them taken down and the city’s contract with Flock to end.