Will Massachusetts lawmakers take action on controversial Flock cameras?
Haverhill, Massachusetts, residents packed the City Council's Public Safety Subcommittee Meeting on Thursday to voice their concerns over Flock cameras.
The meeting came a week after the city decided to cancel its contract with Flock. While the mayor said the technology helped in police investigations, she claimed the company did not provide enough necessary safeguards to protect residents' privacy.
One of the advocates who protested the cameras outside of the meeting was Annie Ryan. Ryan said by coming out and sharing their opinions with the council, it's had a direct effect on having privacy fears addressed.
Ryan and others, who formed a local grassroots group, celebrated the contract cancellation. But at Thursday's meeting, they wanted to take their win a step further, with increasing local control. "An ordinance that requires residents have a say via a council vote on any new surveillance technology that the city or the police department wants to adopt in Haverhill," Ryan said.
The overall goal is transparency, which Kade Crockford with the ACLU of Massachusetts is also fighting for.
"The scope of the surveillance, the fact that everyone is being tracked, the scope of the data sharing, sharing with departments outside of your city or town, those raise very serious concerns about accountability and oversight," Crockford said. "Massachusetts needs to join the many other states in New England and across the country that have state laws on the books to regulate police use of this technology."
State Representative Steven Owens is working towards that regulation. He plans to bring up a bill next legislative session to address public concerns.
"Law enforcement will tell you it's a useful tool and we agree that it is, but there needs to be reasons to do these searches, to do this tracking. We can't be in a situation where everybody who uses our roads is being tracked, bought, sold and commodified by a third-party company," Rep. Owens said.
The third party, Flock Safety, has also recently spoken out about state regulations in a virtual meeting with a policy think tank, R Street Institute. Flock's senior director of policy, Andrea Korb, said legislation can mitigate concerns.
"We really advocate for strong legislation state by state. I think that benefits everyone. I think there is a lot of fear and concern for this technology right now, and we want people to know your legislature has looked at this and here are the safeguards put in place," Korb said.
WBZ reached out to Flock Safety for comment and did not hear back.