Flock cameras help police solve crimes, raise privacy concerns

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Across the country, law enforcement agencies use Flock cameras, automated license plate readers that many in law enforcement say help them fight crime daily.

“It has become the biggest rage in crime fighting,” said Kenner Police Chief Keith Conley.

The automated devices operate 24/7.

“It does. It captures every vehicle that passes in front of it. Now, granted, it only takes a static picture of the back of the vehicle, license plate,” Conley said.

He said the technology helped solve a murder in Kenner.

“We had a poor handyman that was doing work in University in somebody’s front yard. A vehicle drove by, shot him, and killed him. We had no witnesses. We really had no evidence, but we had a ring doorbell that captured a description of that vehicle.”

Investigating officers turned to the Flock system.

“The investigators from here in this building threw it up in a Flock system, and that vehicle was hitting on several other flock cameras throughout the city. So, within two or three hours, we had these two guys off the streets. We had the murder weapon, and those people eventually got convicted,” Conley said.

But the technology has critics.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is demanding transparency from Flock Safety, the company behind the network of license plate readers.

In a social media post this week, Schumer said, “Flock must delete personal data of American citizens without criminal connections and answer questions about the mountains of personal data they’ve already stockpiled.”

The American Civil Liberties Union also has a campaign called “Fight Creepy Automatic License Plate Readers.”

“I’d like to hear how it’s violating privacy. I get the fact they consider it creepy, but we’re going after creeps. We’re going after people that are coming into our communities to victimize our citizens or have already victimized our citizens,” Conley said. “We’re taking murderers off the streets from other communities. I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding. I know there’s a lot of misinformation.”

SciLine, a nonprofit service for journalists, held a briefing on Flock cameras Wednesday, Oct. 7.

“The technology is pretty good in terms of reading the license plate, but sometimes you get some false positives; it’s on the hot list wrong, it’s from another state,” said Johnny Nhan of Texas Christian University, who is also a reserve police officer.

Kimberly Przeszlowski of Quinnipiac University also participated in the SciLine discussion.

“The image alone should not generate probable cause unless it’s tied to an NCIC case; that alone it should be a piece of the investigation,” she said.

Conley said the system has safeguards.

“We have an auditor. To the Flock system’s credit, they’ve come up with a new audit using AI to where if any officer has repetitive use on one tag or something of that nature, you know, it’s going to stop that officer from having access to the system and report it to the administrator,” he said.

However, license plate readers do not identify drivers.

“We don’t capture the front of the vehicle, so we don’t even know who’s in a vehicle. So, we do know who the registered owner of the vehicle is. If it’s flagged as stolen, switched plate, involved in a crime, or a wanted subject, that will pop up, and that’s just a tool that we use to keep our communities safe,” Conley said.

He said anyone in Kenner with concerns about the system should contact his department.

“The Kenner Police Department is very transparent, very open about that, but if somebody hears something, they have any concerns, please bring it to us,” Conley said. “We want to make sure that the public has trust and faith in what we do with the technology that we have, that we’re not going to abuse their trust.”

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