Philadelphia City Council is set to hear argument, and potentially vote on, legislation that calls for a ban — or, at least, place guardrails — on Flock surveillance cameras in the community.
The discussion is expected to be part of a meeting that will be held Thursday at City Hall.
The bill being discussed was authored by City Councilmember at-large Rue Landau and it calls for state officials to ban the use of Flock Safety’s Automatic License Plate Reader cameras and ban or develop strong guardrails for the use of automatic license plate reader technology.
Flock Safety’s license plate cameras are used by law enforcement agencies in communities across the country to track vehicles and help solve crimes.
The cameras have also generated concerns about privacy and potential misuse of the data they collect.
In fact, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, has said, he would welcome legislation to ban these devices.
Also, some Pennsylvania lawmakers are already considering ways to regulate these types of license plate cameras.
According to the website, FlockCameraLocations.com, there are more than 300 Flock and other automatic license plate reader cameras within 10 miles of Center City Philadelphia.
The pending City Council legislation argues that a ban or guardrails need to be considered by state lawmakers as it alleges the company has overstated the effectiveness of the data access and security measures that are currently in place on the devices.
“Flock knowingly overstates the effectiveness of data access and security measures, such as stating that its requirement that all searches of Flock’s ALPR database must include the purpose for the search to ensure prevention of inappropriate and unauthorized uses, even though Flock knew its system regularly accepts vague descriptions such as ‘investigation’ and has even accepted ‘hehehe’ as a search justification,” reads the legislation.
However, in responding to calls for a ban, the company has said previously that such a measure would “take a proven investigative tool away from many communities.”
“Flock’s technology is an important public safety tool for law enforcement agencies across Pennsylvania, helping officers solve serious crimes and find missing people,” a Flock Safety spokesperson wrote to NBC10. “A blanket ban would take a proven investigative tool away from communities and officers who rely on it. We support thoughtful, bipartisan legislation that puts strong privacy, transparency, and accountability guardrails in place while preserving law enforcement’s ability to use technology responsibly to keep people safe.”
Philadelphia City Council is expected to take up discussion on this pending legislation during a meeting slated to begin at 9 a.m. at City Hall on Thursday.