# Audit sparks fears over misuse of Flock cameras
# CBS News — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRuDJIdMnsY

Citizens across the country are slamming
these devices. They're called Flock
cameras and they are considered one of
law enforcement's most effective tools
to fight crime like reading license
plates recently. Now, concerns over
misuse are leading to officers being
kicked off the job raising questions
about who has access to all of this data
it collects. In Minnesota, residents are
taking matters into their own hands to
get rid of these devices. Police say
eight of the cameras around the city
have been sawed off and even stolen. And
in Michigan, Democratic lawmakers are
calling on the Michigan Department of
Transportation to end all contracts that
allow federal access to install
surveillance technology on state
property and that includes Flock
cameras. So, the company 404 Media says
cities are ditching Flock and they're
replacing it with Axon license plate
readers. So, Joseph Cox is the
co-founder of 404 Media. He joins us now
with more on this. Joseph, what can you
tell us about these license plate
readers?
So, Flock's Flock license plate readers,
they are usually on a stationary pole
and they constantly record the license
plate, the color, the brand, the model
of every vehicle that drives past them.
Now, this is not vehicles that are
suspected of being linked to a crime. It
is literally every vehicle that goes
past these cameras. Then, with that
data, law enforcement is able to search
through that information usually without
a warrant and that's one of the main
reasons that people and communities
around the country are, you know, so
passionate about this.
So, what makes the Axon cameras
different from these Flock cameras?
So, Flock on one side has a national
network, which means that a cop, say in
Texas, can search cameras all over the
United States including ones in Illinois
or California or wherever. That's a very
powerful tool for law enforcement, but
that's also very controversial where
some states are going to police other
crimes differently to other states. And
another reason why people are so
against Flock cameras in general, Axon
meanwhile does not have a national
network. That doesn't mean that law
enforcement agencies may not share
access with other agencies such as ICE
or local sheriff's departments or
whatever, but there isn't the national
database and that's why some cities,
according to our reporting, are ditching
Flock and then going to Axon instead.
So, more specifically, I know 404 Media
has linked these cameras to ICE and also
abuse by some law enforcement
stalking their exes.
So, what can you tell us? What did you
find about these and do you expect more
cities to really reconsider using these
cameras? We're talking about Flock
cameras.
Yeah, so last May we reported that local
police were performing lookups in
Flock's system for Immigration Customs
Enforcement, HSI as well, and also
searches that simply said immigration.
That obviously started this national
conversation about Flock cameras and
whether people actually want these sort
of cameras in their communities. We also
found that a woman who self-administered
an abortion, she was tracked with these
cameras as well. And there is this
national conversation, as I said, there
are city council meetings nearly every
day or every week where communities are
saying, do we actually want these or
not? And in some cases, cities do agree
to keep the cameras. In some cases, they
decide to switch to Axon. In other
cases, they say, we don't want to have
these sort of cameras at all and they
get rid of them entirely.
All right, Joseph Cox. Joseph, thank
you.