The Mayor of Sheboygan has shared his thoughts on the presence of Flock cameras in the city.
As previously reported, Sheboygan City Administrator Casey Bradley and Police Chief Kurt Zempel released a statement noting that they will be recommending that the Common Council terminate the City’s contract with Flock Safety for Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) cameras.
In a recent statement, Mayor Ryan Sorenson backed this and said he is in favor of severing ties with Flock, which he said has become untrustworthy.
After that joint statement was released earlier this week, DPW staff placed bags over the 15 Flock cameras in the City that are no longer in use.
Mayor Sorenson continued to say that trust is essential to any services used in Sheboygan, and added, “Quite frankly, Flock has violated that trust. That’s why I’m in support of getting rid of our Flock cameras.”
While labeled as license plate readers, Flock cameras gather significantly more data than simply a car’s license plate number.
In fact, they capture an image of every single vehicle that passes by them, regardless of any involvement in criminal activity.
These images are then compiled into a database with the use of artificial intelligence, which collects and extracts additional information such as a vehicle’s make, model, color, distinctive features, and detailed location, time, and date information.
That information is then searchable by any municipality with a Flock contract without a warrant or probable cause.
Flock Safety and the communities that use it have come under widespread scrutiny recently for a long list of reasons, including infringing on Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, creating a mass surveillance state, and nationwide misuse by police officers across the country.
The Common Council will vote on terminating its Flock contract on September 8th.
