Full transcript
People need to be able to exercise their rights freely.
What we're calling for with our allies is just a pause in the use of this technology.
I don't think it's anyone's values
to legislate away technology that helps solve homicides,
find kidnapped children,
solve violent crime,
ensure that stolen properties is returned to their owners.
A critical life saving tool for local police departments to solve crimes,
or is it
an invasive way for certain populations to be targeted?
That's the argument
between the ACLU of Connecticut and companies
that provide automatic license plate readers to towns and cities across our state.
As you first heard there,
the ACLU is calling for a moratorium on license plate readers in Connecticut.
Yeah,
Fox 61's Annette Montgomery is in Hartford with what both sides say about
these systems and whether there might be a compromise on the table.
Hartford police confirmed with me that they use license plate readers,
not flocks specifically,
but they called them a helpful tool in solving crime.
Yet the executive director of the ACLU of
Connecticut tells me these systems are unregulated,
can be targeted to certain populations,
and can prevent some neighbors from exercising their rights freely.
The age old question that has been raised since
the start of technology has made its way to Connecticut
and specifically to automatic license plate readers are the systems helpful
or hurtful?
In this letter released in November,
David McGuire,
the executive director for the ACLU of Connecticut,
says they put.
And request to 42 municipal police departments
known to use flock safety license plate
readers and one to Connecticut State Police for general use about the system.
This is not about
solving crimes.
This is about making sure that people's data is not logged
in a way that creates a digital dossier on every single person
in the state who's just trying to go about their life.
Live their
live their rights and exercise their freedoms.
Although the ACLU of Connecticut is calling for a moratorium,
Holly Bayland,
the director of communications for Flock Safety,
says this technology
is life saving.
Flock safety license plate readers are instrumental in
solving some really serious crimes across the country.
Uh,
they have been
absolutely critical in solving kidnappings
and helping find missing persons.
I just saw a case in Southington,
Connecticut where
a stolen auto was actually helped,
um,
recovered with the license plate
readers,
readers that McGuire says these departments should stop using,
at least temporarily.
What we worry about is the hoarding.
And
of data and losing control of
it.
Balin tells me everything the ACLU is asking for as it relates
to certain communities is not being targeted within these systems can be done
now.
I think it would be a real shame
to
pull.
The technology that is saving kidnapped,
recovering kidnapped children,
helping solve crimes,
actively helping
communities in Connecticut be safer today
for
a list of apps
that are possible to be implemented within the existing system.
Balin tells me key words like ICE will never hit the cameras,
and it's up to each individual agency
who they share camera access and information with.
She also tells me Flock's safety data retention period is 30 days.
McGuire tells me Governor Ned Lamont says he is open to reform in this area.
In Hartford,
Annette Montgomery,
Fox 61.