LAPD ends neighborhood camera surveillance contract with Flock over privacy backlash
A Flock surveillance camera. Photo Credit: Facebook.
Public opposition forces a freeze on neighborhood camera feeds while city officials demand tighter privacy rules.
The Los Angeles Police Department is ending its access to a controversial network of neighborhood surveillance cameras this weekend after a wave of public pushback over privacy rights, as reported by ABC Eyewitness News.
The department’s data-sharing agreement with Flock Safety expires Saturday. Under the deal, the LAPD did not own the roadway cameras. Instead, private groups, developers, and homeowners’ associations bought the hardware and gave police access to the license plate data and vehicle photos collected on public streets.
While some neighborhood groups initially welcomed the technology to deter crime, local residents and privacy advocates heavily criticized the lack of oversight and long data-retention windows. LAPD officials admitted that these community privacy concerns directly drove the decision to let the contract expire.
LAPD’s chief information officer, Dean Gialamas, told ABC Eyewitness News,”This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras. The LAPD had to make a difficult decision, in this case discontinuing using Flock services until we can get those data, privacy, security and sharing concerns ironed out through a contractual relationship.”
The ACLU has expressed concerns about Flock Safety giving access to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Homeland Security (DHS) while not being upfront about the data sharing. In Pasadena, Texas a police sargeant resigned while he was under an internal investigation for for allegedly using data from Flock Safety automatic license plate readers to monitor a a female officer’s whereabouts.
Because private entities own the physical cameras, it is unclear if the devices will keep recording after Saturday, but the data will no longer stream to police databases.
The LAPD is still talking with Flock Safety about a potential new contract, but police leaders say they will not sign anything unless the company agrees to strict new rules regarding data storage limits and explicit privacy protections.
