Americans have good reason to worry about the rapid spread of Flock Safety cameras. More than 6,000 governments in 49 states now use these swarms of cameras to monitor cars, tracking their movements throughout the day for law enforcement purposes. While catching criminals is always important, people fear their privacy rights are at risk, and government officials have already been caught abusing this technology. And there’s another reason to worry: I’ve found that my local government, at least, is avoiding the transparency that ensures accountability.
This week, I filed a lawsuit against Genesee County in Michigan. In February, I submitted freedom of information requests to the Board of County Commissioners. I asked for a variety of records dealing with the 30 Flock cameras installed by the county. I wanted the contract with the company, audit logs showing how often other municipalities and law enforcement agencies have accessed the data, a map of the cameras’ locations, and how often the cameras had recorded my own license plate, as well as a few other documents.
I’ve been interested in technology like this since 12th grade, when I created a similar license-plate reader for a high school project. To train my device, I had to manually photograph each car in the school parking lot. Students and teachers raised concerns about privacy, which got me thinking they may have a point. I ultimately concluded that such an invasive technology has no place in a free society.
I recognize that this is a fierce debate. Law enforcement agencies across the United States have said the technology helps them find child predators, human traffickers, and other awful criminals. Yet whether you support or oppose these camera systems, we can all agree on one thing. Governments must be completely transparent about how, where, when, and why they use the cameras.
Hence, my records request to Genesee County. I figured my ask was straightforward and unobjectionable, but when I received the county’s response on March 18, I was surprised to find that my request for audit logs, a camera map, and images and data on my vehicle were denied. I was even more surprised by the reasoning. The county said it couldn’t hand over data because Flock owns the cameras and the data they collect. The exact quote: “the Flock Security System is a system that is not owned by Genesee County,” and “ultimately the data within it does not belong to this public body.”
YOU NEVER APPROVED THIS CAMERA. SO WHY IS IT WATCHING YOU?
How can this be? In a January article in the local newspaper, Flock Safety said the opposite is true. The company said its customers — like Genesee County — “100% own the data” recorded by the cameras. Furthermore, the county provided its contract to me, which definitively makes clear that the government — not Flock Safety — owns the data. Yet the county still denied much of my records request, depriving the public of basic transparency. So I’m suing the county, with the help of Michigan’s Mackinac Center. I’m asking a state court to compel the county to turn over the records I requested.
Such clarity is crucial to preventing any government — not just Genesee County — from hiding the details about the use of these cameras. This technology is too powerful and polarizing to be kept behind a cloak of secrecy. No government should be allowed to ignore the transparency and accountability that we the people demand and deserve.
Joshua Tewolde is a computer engineering student at Kettering University.