Elbert County is embarking on 2024 without a Flock Safety camera contract after the county commissioners chose not to renew the deal, due in large part to privacy concerns.
The commissioners decided not to renew the contract at their Dec. 13 meeting. The Elbert County Sheriff’s Office has used the cameras for less than a year, but the practice is ending due to the cutoff of money and the contract.
Flock Safety cameras are a brand of Automated License Plate Recognition cameras (ALPR or LPR). Flock sends instant alerts to law enforcement officers if any license plates captured by the cameras show up on a “Hot List,” a list of wanted vehicles, or if they match a wanted vehicle description.
In addition to reading plates, Flock can categorize by things like color, make, model, and whether or not a vehicle has a bumper sticker or roof rack.
The system will trigger an alert if a plate is flagged for any number of reasons — stolen vehicle, stolen plates, Amber Alerts, Silver Alerts, etc. According to Flock, the data stays in their system for 30 days and is then deleted.
County Commissioner Dallas Schroeder said the “retention of data, how it’s secured, who may or may not have access, and what it’s used for” are his primary concerns. The more Schroeder learned and read, the more uneasy he became about the “whole idea of the capturing of data” and surveilling the comings and goings of county residents, he said.
Schroeder largely agrees with the ACLU’s stance on LPRs. A February 2023 ACLU article points out that “while license plate readers have been around for some time, Flock is the first to create a nationwide mass-surveillance system out of its customers’ cameras.” Every new customer that buys the cameras extends the network. The fear is that the technology could be used to create comprehensive records of everybody’s comings and goings.
Regardless of what the cameras are used for, the ACLU feels that “police do not need records of every person’s coming and goings, including trips to doctor’s offices, religious institutions, and political gatherings.”
Schroeder noted that this technology has advanced so quickly that regulations haven’t had a chance to catch up. In his opinion, there is no oversight and the field is largely unregulated.
Sheriff sees value in cameras
Elbert County Sheriff Tim Norton disagrees with this assessment and feels that Flock cameras are a “great tool” for the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office to have. Norton believes that with Elbert County’s manpower issues, the Flock system was another “tool in our toolbox to fight crime” that has been taken away.
Elbert County has had the Flock system for less than a year. Norton said in the first week with the cameras, Elbert County recovered three stolen vehicles. In early January, Elbert County’s Flock cameras flagged a stolen vehicle at the local Wal-Mart. The sheriff’s office ended up arresting three fugitives from the Department of Corrections.
Norton explained that the system simply notifies the department of a flagged plate and deputies have to follow up and do police work to verify whether or not a vehicle is rightfully flagged. He said several Colorado law enforcement agencies utilize Flock cameras and have had success lowering crime.
Castle Rock Police Chief Jack Cauley partially credited LPRs for a significant decrease in crime in a 9News article from March 1, 2023. Castle Rock has about 40 electronic license plate readers in town, the story said. Half of those LPRs are owned by homeowners associations and the other half are owned by the police department, but information from all cameras goes back to police.
Douglas County has LPRs placed on major roadways and in every patrol car. A CBS News Colorado article on car thefts from December reported that “thefts originating in the county are down 27% and cars eluding police are down 44% since last year,” citing Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly.
Before the Elbert County commissioners rescinded funding, Flock cameras were the focus of discussion at several county meetings.
In an Oct. 5 commissioners’ work session, Sheriff Norton and Undersheriff Dave Fisher explained their rationale for maintaining the Flock cameras to the county commissioners. Topics covered included the length of time Flock retains data, whether or not Flock makes additional profit selling data and whether or not the federal government can access that data.
In a subsequent work session on Oct. 30, Hector Soliman-Valdez of Flock Safety spoke to these and other questions about the system. Commissioners Grant Thayer and Chris Richardson were present, as well as Sheriff Norton and Undersheriff Dave Fisher. Commissioner Schroeder was ill and spoke with Flock representatives at a later date.
Soliman-Valdez said the rationale for storing data for 30 days is to give law enforcement more time to gather information. He went on to say that Flock data is encrypted, stored on Amazon web servers, and Flock does not have access to it to sell or share it. When asked who had access to the data, Soliman-Valdez emphasized that the sheriff’s office owns it and any data sharing would fall under their purview and policies.
Officials express their views
Norton and Fisher spoke in favor of Flock cameras at the commissioners’ meeting on Dec. 13 before Schroeder added his own thoughts. Schroeder explained how his concerns regarding Flock and privacy were related to his thoughts on the federal government moving toward a police state.
“… Federal law enforcement calling parents who attend school board meetings domestic terrorists is concerning to me. As well as people in the highest levels of our government referring the same to MAGA Republicans as domestic terrorists,” Schroeder said. “That’s rhetoric that’s extreme and it’s dangerous and it’s leading us down a bad path … That’s kind of where I’m coming from with my concerns and my questions about this Flock system.”
At this point in the meeting, the commissioners formally voided the Flock contract, set to renew in February 2024, and also chose not to set aside any funds for it in the 2024 budget. Schroeder said he would “like to continue to sit down with our sheriff’s office and come to a happy medium.”
Commissioner Richardson asserted that the decision to defund the cameras was only made after much consideration. “… This wasn’t a decision made lightly and not a reflection of the level of confidence we have in our sheriff or his deputies,” he said. “It does, however, reflect our concern with protecting the civil liberties and privacy rights of our citizens.”
Flock was founded in 2017 by a former electrical engineer after several break-ins in his Atlanta neighborhood. The company adapted vehicle surveillance for the general public while their main competitor, Vigilant Solutions, sells primarily to local governments and police. Flock cameras are marketed to law enforcement agencies, as well as to neighborhood associations and private businesses.
Elbert County commissioner meetings take place the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, from 9-10 a.m., at 215 Comanche St. in Kiowa. Meeting agendas and minutes are available at elbertcounty-co.gov/129/Agendas-Minutes.