BRENTWOOD — Despite privacy concerns, the Brentwood City Council unanimously approved last week the purchase of 32 automatic license plate reader cameras.
Justified as a way to help the Brentwood Police Department, the city will pay $240,000 to Flock Group Inc. for the cameras plus three additional surveillance cameras.
Prior to their vote for approval, Councilmember Jovita Mendoza and Vice Mayor Pa’tanisha Pierson cited concerns over privacy, civil liberties, mass surveillance, and the potential tracking of vehicles or individuals without probable cause.
“What can we do to ensure that our Fourth Amendment probable cause will not be violated?” asked Pierson.
Flock’s Community Engagement Manager Kristen McLeod said the cameras are placed at fixed locations and aimed at public right-of-ways, taking still images of the back of vehicles.
“There’s no way to continuously track the movements or the movements of the whole person, the system is focused on vehicle details, not people,” said McLeod.
A U.S. District Court judge recently rejected a motion by Norfolk, Virginia, to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the city’s use of more than 170 automatic license plate readers. McLeod said the case is still pending, but multiple federal and appellate court cases have concluded that evidence obtained from the cameras does not violate the Fourth Amendment.
McLeod said because the service they offer is a subscription model, if it is determined to be violating any laws, Flock will deactivate and remove the cameras.
Pierson questioned if the data might be used by outside agencies against others, such as immigrants, low-income groups, or communities of color.
McLeod said the data is completely owned by the city and the Brentwood Police Department. Any legal request for access — such as a subpoena from a federal agency — would require the city’s authorization before any information is shared.
She said Flock hosts the data in a secured cloud environment for 30 days. After that, the data is deleted and unrecoverable. Images are only retained as part of a criminal investigation, where they are downloaded and placed in the police department’s evidence repository system.
McLeod further noted that Flock’s technology can also mitigate bias in policing, as it focuses on alerting officers to wanted vehicles.
She said there have been two cases in which an officer utilized the data inappropriately and the system flagged it. McLeod said that officer was disciplined, fired and may be charged with criminal offenses.
“So again, we designed the system very intentionally so that departments can audit the use and ensure that the use is appropriate,” said McLeod, noting Flock strongly encourages police departments to include a regular auditing process in their policies.
Police Chief Tim Herbert said the system is no different than running someone’s driver’s license and is utilized on a need-to-know basis. He also noted that the department has policies in place to avoid the misuse of data.
Herbert said the city first introduced automatic license plate readers through a pilot program in 2016 utilizing Vigilant technology. However, Herbert said the technology has become outdated, and the company’s service levels have not been up to par.
He said Flock’s technology provides a broader field of view using fewer cameras, which would provide better coverage for tracking vehicles involved in crimes, particularly those leaving the city.
“The current cameras also require an electrical power supply and modems that we’re paying for monthly to transmit the data. With Flock, they are solar-powered,” said Herbert.
The chief said three surveillance cameras will be placed in high-traffic areas, including City Park, downtown Brentwood, and the new pedestrian overcrossing on Highway 4.