Red Bay halts use of Flock cameras
RED BAY — Councilmembers have voted to take the city’s Flock Safety license plate recognition cameras offline until officials finalize a policy governing their use.
The city has two Flock license plate readers. One is on Golden Road near Hospital and Gates roads, and the other is located at the intersection of 11th Street SE and Fourth Avenue SE.
Police Chief Janna Jackson said she would contact Flock to have the system taken offline.
The vote followed an Aug. 17 meeting where residents questioned the cameras effects on privacy and their constitutional rights. At the end of that meeting, councilmembers tabled the proposed policy for further work.
Councilmember Jason Vinson made the motion during the Aug. 19 meeting to stop use of the cameras, so they are “not capturing any images until the policy is finalized.” His motion directed the police committee to continue working on a policy which is to be presented to councilmembers when it’s completed.
Councilmember Brad Bolton seconded the motion, which passed without further discussion. Bolton recommended reviewing the city’s Flock contract and publishing a working draft of the policy before taking final action. He proposed giving residents another opportunity to review and comment on the draft.
“We want to get this right the first time,” Bolton said.
Mayor Mike Shewbart said the city would rewrite the policy, publish it and bring it back before the public.
Residents who attended the Aug. 17 meeting offered differing views about whether the cameras would improve public safety, or create risks involving privacy, data security, oversight and the technology’s capabilities.
Corey Oaks questioned the constitutionality of collecting motorists’ location information and expressed concerns about oversight of the system.
Oaks, who said he regularly comes through Red Bay because of his computer repair work, said the cameras could create a record of his movements.
“Tracking my backand- forth movement is a concern for my privacy,” he said.
Red Bay High School student Makayla Jackson said surveillance technology could discourage people from freely exercising constitutional rights, including visiting gun stores or shooting ranges.
She said information collected repeatedly could establish patterns showing where people work, worship, attend political meetings, or otherwise exercise their rights.
“I’m not saying that law enforcement shouldn’t use technology to solve crimes, but public safety and constitutional liberty should not be treated as an either-or choice when we can have both,” Jackson said.
Charles Inman supported keeping the cam-
