Berkeley closer to installing Flock surveillance cameras throughout the city
Berkeley could soon be getting at least 16 surveillance cameras installed throughout the city after the plan cleared another hurdle in a late-night Tuesday vote.
In an 8-1 vote, city council approved the Surveillance Acquisition Report, which will let the Berkeley Police Department move forward with the contract work with Flock Safety and the implementation of the video cameras.
The Flock cameras will capture live video but not audio, and will not have facial recognition, according to the report.
Arlo Malmberg, the department's strategic planning and accountability manager, said that the cameras will not send any alerts to police, and Police Chief Jen Louis added that live video will not be monitored unless it is to confirm reports of an ongoing crime, such as an active shooter incident.
Where will the cameras be located?
The cameras will be in locations where there is pedestrian activity to avoid overlap with the city's automated license plate readers, the report states. While both the cameras and ALPRs are through Flock, the systems will not communicate or be integrated with each other, Malmberg said.
According to the report, the cameras will be at the following locations.
- Center Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way
- College and Ashby avenues
- Milvia Street and Allston Way
- 9th and Gilman streets
- Center Street and Shattuck Avenue
- University and Shattuck avenues
- Cedar Street and Shattuck Avenue
- Durant and Telegraph avenues
- 4th and Virginia streets
- University Avenue and MLK
- Solano and Colusa avenues
- 4th Street and Hearst Avenue
- Adeline and Fairview streets
- Shattuck and Ashby avenues
- 62nd and King streets
- College and Alcatraz avenues
Other possible locations, if there is enough funding, include Ashby and Domingo avenues, Ashby and San Pablo avenues, Dwight and San Pablo avenues, and University and San Pablo avenues
Will video be saved?
According to the report, video will be retained for 180 days.
"It often will not become clear that the footage is necessary at all until later in the investigation," Malmberg said. "When the policy was originally approved by council, the discussion recognized that 30 days was not enough … A year felt too long, so we landed on 180 days as a middle ground."
Louis said it would also address concerns that footage will still be there in cases of delayed reporting of crimes.
Who can access the video?
Malmberg said that only authorized Police Department personnel will be able to access footage and only for approved uses.
Approved uses include supporting specific and active criminal investigations, serious traffic-related investigations, police misconduct investigations and responding to and reviewing critical incidents or natural disasters.
Other law enforcement agencies will not be able to directly access Berkeley's footage. Any requests for data will have to go through Berkeley Police, and anything relevant will then be downloaded and shared, Malmberg said.
There will be a biannual audit of the surveillance system and the access log. Any time the data is accessed, it will be logged, along with a reason for the access.
The city council still has to approve a contract with Flock.
Berkeley had previously approved the surveillance program, but another report had to be presented as they decided to move forward with a different vendor and because of the different technology being used, according to the report.
