Full transcript
from KUNC and the NPR network. This is
in the noco. I'm Aaron Oul.
Drive through some communities in
Colorado and your movements may be
monitored by a network of cameras that
track your license plate. A company
called Flock operates dozens of these
cameras in Boulder, Denver, and Fort
Collins. And they've quietly
photographed millions of cars over the
last year.
And right now, these cities are
grappling with the question of whether
these cameras help fight crime or are an
abuse of privacy and civil liberties.
Denver leaders announced in February
they would not renew the city's contract
with Flock. Officials in Boulder and
Fort Collins are also considering
dropping their use of flock cameras
after public opposition.
To better understand the debate over
these cameras, we reached out to Steven
Kenir. He's an assistant professor of
criminology at Christopher Newport
University in Virginia. He studies the
use of flot cameras across the US and
how that data has been used or misused
by law enforcement, as well as some of
the philosophical objections to the
cameras.
I think that these cameras in particular
really violate a fundamental assumption
that we have. You know, if we're doing
what we're supposed to do, if we're, you
know, if we're not breaking the law, if
we're not providing probable calls, the
government and police are supposed to
leave us alone, like we are supposed to
have a certain expectation of privacy.
But in reality, the vast majority of
data being captured by these cameras are
people just living their everyday
law-abiding life. Flock cameras are
usually mounted on poles or you might
see them on walls close to streets. The
cameras scan license plates and
sometimes bumper stickers. Stephen,
briefly, what happens after the flat
camera photographs your license plate?
So, we call this a vehicle fingerprint.
And so, it can recognize the make and
model of your car, bumper stickers, if
you have like certain additions on your
car, all of that. An image is captured
is then sent to a police database and
usually with that there is a timestamp
and a location of where that photo was
taken and the time. Uh but from there
they can integrate that picture with
other surveillance data they have coming
from things like traffic cameras, speed
cameras, CCTV and it is a pretty
expansive database of both real-time
pictures being captured as well as
historical tracking data. Now, privacy
and civil liberties advocates have major
concerns about how this data is used.
What are a couple of examples of ways
that you've seen data misused after a
flot camera photographs a car?
Yeah, so it's a couple different
categories and probably the most
concerning of which has been the way
it's been abused uh particularly by law
enforcement. For example, we've seen
across the country officers using I'm
going to refer to them as ALPRs a lot.
That's automatic license plate reader
cameras. Okay. Um and flock safety is
the predominant form of ALPR cameras.
And so um we've seen officers across the
country use ALPR data to stalk exes
exartners. Um we've seen them stalk
their exartner's new partner. Um, we
also had an incident where in Texas, um,
there was a search for a woman they
thought was seeking an abortion out of
state and they actually were using the
ALPR data to try to track where she went
and she tried to do that. Um, so there's
those abuses by law enforcement. We've
also seen quite a few technical issues
as well and misreads. Uh, for example,
there was a family that was held at
gunpoint because of a misread of an ALR
camera that thought the vehicle was
stolen. in some of these cases got
pretty aggressive and violent.
So, Denver leaders decided late last
year they would stop using flock cameras
after learning ICE officers had accessed
information from a database ma
maintained by flock safety which builds
the cameras. This is despite Flock's
assurance that the company doesn't share
that data. How is ICE able to get that
information? So the most common way
they're getting that information is
through what we call a side door. And
they're essentially just finding a
friendly police officer that's willing
to give them access to the database. So
if you're a law enforcement department
that you has a contract with Flock, you
can opt into their regional and national
sharing database. And so in those cases,
if you opt in, the pictures that are
taken by your ALPR cameras are shared
across the country um and is now
accessible to law enforcement agencies
across the country. in some incidents
which we also saw in Virginia. This past
summer we saw ICE access five different
localities flock databases in Virginia
and that was through the side doors
where they there was somebody willing to
give them access to the database and
once they had access to one portal of
entry they now had access to this
expansive national database. This is
frustrating on a number of levels. One
like you said um we have heard from
flock that this is not going on. and
there is not sharing with the federal
government even though we continue to
see that it's happening and in many of
these cases um when you ask law
enforcement if they knew this was going
on sometimes you'll see law enforcement
leaders say no they did not know it that
they would not have given them access if
they did know what was going on and
there's also this question of what if
they just came to a local department
says hey you know we are a federal law
enforcement agency federal law trumps
state laws and local laws so can we
access your database
Um, and there's a reasonable argument to
be made that that would be the case,
that they would also have a legal
avenue,
which I think is quite concerning.
Stephen, law enforcement and city
leaders often say flock cameras help
reduce crime.
What does the research show about the
camera's ability to prevent crime?
There is no peer-reviewed empirical
study that can make that argument. And
that's because of a lot of reasons. One,
crime is complicated and why crime
happens is complicated. Two, like there
has been a reduction in crime rates
almost across the board across the
country. Not everywhere, but but most
localities are seeing it.
Those are in those counties that have
flock cameras and the counties that do
not have flot cameras. Crime is going
down everywhere. But also, these
cameras, if they're being used by law
enforcement, it is to find somebody
after the fact to you be able to track
somebody down. But when it comes to
crime prevention, that does not connect
at all with what we know from historical
research on why crime happens,
especially violent crime. If we want to
prevent violent crime, it's going to
have to involve things like reducing
inequality, um, youth focused programs,
violence interruptors, those kind of
actual preventive mechanisms.
Well, I mean, you mentioned flop cameras
can help recover stolen vehicles and
solve other serious crimes. And I think
supporters might say that's pretty
important. Um, how should residents
weigh that potential benefit against
these concerns that you've mentioned?
I would make the argument that the
concerns far outweigh the benefits. Like
when we see these kinds of abuses that
happen, you know, when we see a police
officer and even police chief using it
to stalk exartners and their new
partners, that to me is pretty
terrifying. The fact that we know that
ICE and other federal agencies were
accessing this data even when we were
being told that they were not able to do
that I think is extremely concerning. Um
also we've seen in a number of
localities where during the no kings
protest ALPR data was accessed as a way
to try to track protesters who came to
the protest where did they go after and
I think that is a clear suppression of
free speech. All of those are actual
abuses that we've already seen come to
light and come to fruition and they
continue to happen.
And so I would argue that mass
surveillance in general, but
particularly this form of mass
surveillance makes us far less safe than
more safe.
Steven Kenir is assistant professor of
criminology at Christopher Newport
University in Virginia, where he's also
the director of the Center for Crime,
Equity, and Justice Research and Policy.
You can read more of his research into
flock cameras and the debate over the
future of the cameras in Boulder,
Denver, and Fort Collins. We'll have
links in our show notes and at kunc.org.
That's it today for in the noco. I'm
Aaron Oul. Thanks so much for listening.