DENVER – Just hours before a scheduled town hall where community members, leaders, and registered neighborhood organizations (RNOs) are going to demand that Mayor Mike Johnston turn off Flock cameras in Denver, the Mayor’s office announced a new extension of the Flock Safety contract with the city of Denver.
Despite convening a task force to discuss policies on the use of Flock and its mass surveillance in the city, Mayor Johnston negotiated new terms of use directly with the CEO of Flock Safety. The mayor’s office is touting new safeguards for the use of Flock’s license plate reading (LPR) cameras that were only implemented after the widespread push back from Denver residents and community advocates.
“For months, Denver residents and community leaders have demanded an end to Flock cameras in the city. And for months, their concerns were ignored,” said Katie Leonard, community organizer with the Denver Party for Socialism and Liberation. “It was only because of the persistence of community advocates that we are seeing the needle move, just slightly, toward protecting the constitutional rights of people in Denver.”
While the effort to try and ensure the “safe” use of LPR cameras in the city is appreciated, these safeguards will not be enough. Flock has already proven it is not a good faith partner with the city when it was dishonest about Denver’s data being put in Flock’s national network without city official’s knowledge.
According to the mayor’s office, the new terms require that law enforcement agencies sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city of Denver to access data collected by Flock’s LPRs. However, an MOU does not address the 4th Amendment concerns surrounding Flock’s mass surveillance system. Tracking someone’s vehicle, where they are going, and when, then storing that information and sharing it without a judicial warrant or exigent circumstances raises real concerns around a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy. And while the mayor says the data cannot be shared with federal agencies, there are still avenues for federal law enforcement agencies, like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to gain access to that data.
The mayor’s office also pushed the point that this contract extension is at no cost to the city, but there will be a cost, and that cost is the data privacy of anyone who is tracked by Flock in the city of Denver.
“For-profit companies don’t offer free services without getting something in return. Flock will profit off the data being collected on the millions of people in Denver who will be under Flock’s mass surveillance system,” said Anaya Robinson, ACLU of Colorado policy director. “Flock will have some type of access and some level of ownership to that data. There needs to be a higher standard set to protect the data privacy of people in Denver.”
There must be full transparency from the mayor’s office when it comes to Flock Safety. There should be no more private negotiations on Flock contracts. The full Flock task force should be included in all matters involving Flock’s contract with the city, and the public’s concerns and input should be a part of that process.
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