Northeast Ohio's Flock fight escalates
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The battle over police surveillance technology is escalating across Northeast Ohio, with opponents increasingly taking matters into their own hands.
Why it matters: The growing backlash puts Northeast Ohio communities in the middle of a national fight over mass surveillance, and how collected data can be used and shared.
The latest: In Lorain County, vandals have damaged or destroyed four of the county sheriff's 15 Flock automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), part of a growing nationwide trend.
- Meanwhile, activists across Cuyahoga County are taking to the streets, pressing city councils and school districts to sever ties with Flock.
The big picture: Flock has become the brand most closely associated with opposition to mass surveillance, but it's only one company in a rapidly expanding industry selling police cameras, drones, gunshot sensors and other devices, many of them plugged into national databases and circumscribed by artificial intelligence.
What they're saying: "This flashy tech startup [Flock] is just the most visible symptom of a much, much deeper problem," Flock No Cleveland spokesperson Bryn Adams told Signal Cleveland last month.
Zoom out: The ACLU released a report this month examining the growing ALPR industry, including Flock competitors Motorola, Axon and Rekor.
Between the lines: The ACLU argues that communities "determined to deploy" license plate readers should impose strict limits on their use.
- "Just because Flock and Motorola do nationwide sharing and AI search doesn't mean that a police department needs to use" those capabilities, the ACLU's Jay Stanley writes.
The other side: Behind the scenes, Flock is actively promoting stories of its technology helping police solve crimes.
- Axios received an "ICYMI" email Monday from Flock media relations highlighting a Bath Police arrest initiated by Flock cameras detecting a stolen vehicle entering the community.
- "This is another example of how Flock technology helps investigators quickly get objective evidence and develop leads," a spokesperson wrote.
As for damaging Flock infrastructure? A Flock spokesperson tells Axios that behavior is illegal and "puts communities at risk."
- "When a camera is taken offline, an investigative lead can disappear, and a time-sensitive alert tied to an AMBER Alert, a missing-person case, or a violent crime suspect on the move may never reach the officers who need it."
What's next: The debate's next chapter will continue to be written in Cleveland, where the current contract with Flock for about 100 ALPRs was extended by six months in July after heated City Council debate.
- The city issued an RFP earlier this month for a longer-term contract covering an array of "intelligence-led policing technologies."