Full transcript
Welcome once again to Lato's Law. Here's
Steve Lato. We've talked before about
the Flock security cameras. A lot of
cities are paying to have these cameras
put up and just basically observe
everything that happens and
some people aren't too crazy about
living in a surveillance society, me
being one of them. And so Alan said,
"Steve, you might like this story."
Flagstaff cancels controversial contract
for Flock safety cameras. The story is
from AZ Family and Mason Carroll wrote
it. The city of Flagstaff just canceled
their contract with a surveillance
camera company Flock safety this week
after a unanimous city council vote. So,
occasionally people will say to me,
"Steve, what can we do?" I always say,
"Complain to the people in power who
make these decisions." And apparently,
it's working. So, locals been raising
concerns over privacy issues for months,
but the company said it's useful in
finding missing people and criminals.
Cameras are pretty inconspicuous when
you're just driving by, but over 30
Flock cameras could be found around
Flagstaff. So, one man who lives in
Flagstaff said that after he learned the
Flock cameras were in town, he became
concerned about his privacy. I look up
on a light post and I see a Flock camera
installed, my heart just sinks.
It's the fact that they're keeping and
maintaining a record of movements of all
drivers, which 99.8% of which will never
be suspected of anything. And 99.8 might
be low. It might be more like 99.99, but
he created Flock out of Flag, the
purpose to try and convince the city to
end its contract with the company. Now,
Flock's been in the headlines quite a
bit lately. They've got automated
license plate reader technology
installed in several cities across
Arizona and it has been credited with
solving crimes. People are saying, "But
Steve, it solves crimes." Guess what? If
we suspended the Bill of Rights, they'd
probably also make some more good
arrests along with a whole bunch of
arrests that would have been bad if the
Bill of Rights was there. So, earlier
this year, their cameras in northern
Arizona helped law enforcement track
down a missing toddler from California.
Just this week, the technology is
credited with helping the Brown
University shooting
situation be solved. So, at a recent
city council meeting in Flagstaff,
police officers hailed the technology as
an important tool in fighting crime.
"It aided in bringing justice to many
victims in our community and we had no
incidents of misuse of the automated
license plate recognition system with
our first year of the contract," said
one officer. But the man behind the
organization worries about who else has
access to the data and that's been
raised in other contexts as well. The
question is they're gathering all this
data. What are they doing with it?
Uh this man here says there has to be a
middle ground and not a constant Big
Brother gathering data on anyone and
everyone.
Flock goes way too far in one direction
and that personally, I believe a hot
list only ALPR system would be a much
better balance for the people of
Arizona. So, in other words, if they're
looking for a license plate, if they
could say, "Look for this license plate,
but don't record every other one that
goes by and save it."
So, this week dozens of people showed up
at a city council meeting echoing those
concerns. And I got news for you. I I
think more people are aware of this now,
but 10, 20 years ago, they weren't. Most
city council meetings are boring affairs
where nobody showed up or one or two
people showed up who are known to be
just complainers. Oh god, he's here
again.
And so, if people show up, then the city
council's forced to actually face some
of these issues and actually defend them
if they want to keep them going. So, a
woman who spoke at the meeting said,
"Approving this contract with Flock
entrusts our private data to a company
that will sacrifice honesty and
integrity for profit." That was her
speaking. That's what she thinks.
After months of back and forth, the city
council unanimously decided to end the
contract. Unanimously.
So,
a nearby county also has Flock cameras,
18 of them currently installed. Uh and
this man who's behind this organization
said they will request that the county
remove those cameras as well. Meanwhile,
the city of Sedona also canceled its
contract with Flock earlier. However,
these cameras are still active across
the state, including some in Phoenix and
in Tucson.
And so, they're out there and they're
being installed in more places, but the
interesting thing is that some of them
are being
removed. Removed. And
[sighs and gasps]
there are places where I expect to be
under surveillance and I don't care.
When I go into the bank lobby, I'm
hoping there's 15 cameras on me.
Because I'd hate to have it be where,
"Oh, Steve, your bank got robbed and
they didn't have any cameras." No, of
course you want cameras in there.
And I suspect there's cameras in all
kinds of retail establishments where
they don't want people stealing stuff.
And I I know of other places there are
cameras that make sense. But just to
simply say, "Well, it'll make us safer
if we put cameras everywhere."
When you leave your house and you step
off your property,
you're being filmed. You're you're being
recorded.
And um
[laughter]
remind me.
But um again, you know, if you go onto
private property, which many of the
places I just mentioned were,
stores and banks and so on,
they have the right to do that, you
know? And and it might make sense they
have to put up a sign telling you that,
"By the way, you're on camera. Smile."
But you know, on private property for
instance, you go on someone else's
property and they got cameras, good for
them.
Can't complain about that. But driving
down Main Street,
driving down Main Street is Any Town,
USA,
the fact that they could be filming you
and recording your license plate and
taking a picture of you as the driver
and putting it on a database someplace
and keeping it,
that bothers me. And the fact this
technology exists doesn't surprise me in
the day and age we live in. The idea of
how much data everybody's gathering
about everybody.
And this is one way we can fight back by
saying we don't want these cameras
surveilling us constantly when we leave
our property. And anytime I mention the
word film
[laughter]
as a verb,
I always get people And by the way, I I
I purposely pause before I explain this
because some people have already typed
it down below saying, "Oh, Steve, you
think those cameras use film, do you?
Because you said they could be filming
us. Don't you know that video cameras
don't contain film? What's wrong with
you? Ha ha ha."
[laughter]
Oh,
it's amazing how many people don't know
about dictionaries. Look up Look up the
word film in a dictionary and it'll say
it's to record a motion picture.
A movie. To make a movie, you are
filming.
But it doesn't use film. Ha ha ha.
Dial a phone number. Phones don't have
dials anymore. Uh you think Does your
cell phone have a dial on it?
[laughter]
Words
can have meanings
and they can survive their literal
meaning
long into the future, especially in
technology. Especially in technology.
So, yes, these things were filming
people everywhere they went in Flagstaff
and pretty soon apparently, they won't
be and that's a good thing. So, I've
digressed and I apologize, but I just
knew that that was a trigger word that a
lot of people were going to get upset by
because I said that these things were
filming them in public and I understand
the cameras don't actually
use film. I know that. So, Alan, thanks
for sending that from AZ Family. Mason
Carroll wrote it. Flagstaff cancels
controversial contract for Flock safety
cameras. That's their word, not mine.
Questions or comments, put them below.
Otherwise, talk to you later. Bye-bye.
Thank you for watching Lato's Law.
One who lives sees much. One who travels
sees more.