Flock Cameras Remain Hot Topic As Company Mulls Possible Changes

With discussion over the pros and cons continuing to be a hot topic, some cities are working to end their contracts with the Flock Safety company while others are increasing the use of the cameras.

Flock is known for their license plate reading cameras which are accessed by law enforcement in the lake area and nationwide to pick up on alerts for vehicles which have been linked to wanted persons and possibly being involved in crimes.

That has drawn widespread criticism over “right to privacy,” data sharing and mis-uses of that information.

While there are Flock cameras in the lake area, just this week in nearby Bolivar, the city voted unanimously to cancel its contract with Flock ordering the devices to be removed and to cover the cameras until they are removed by Flock.

On the other end of the spectrum, the City of Columbia recently approved the use of a Flock Safety camera for the area of Ninth and Walnut streets following recent violent incidents.

In the meantime, Flock has announced different changes to their cameras in response to concerns including making the data stored only available for seven days instead of a month and limiting those with access to the stored information.

There are several Flock cameras in use around the lake area and at least hundreds across the state with a majority of those cameras in use in the bigger metro areas.