Controversies over the misuse of Flock cameras – or automated license plate readers (ALPRs) – in some communities in Kentucky and across the country have motivated some to ask for more transparency or ban the use of the devices outright in Paducah.
Neil Benson, the leader of the Jackson Purchase chapter of the Young Americans For Liberty, launched a petition in late October to call for a ban on the devices in the western Kentucky city. The libertarian group reached across the aisle to work with local organizing group Paducah Action Network to call attention to the cause.
Benson was among a small group who gave public comment at Tuesday’s Paducah City Commission meeting – and also at the local government’s Oct. 27 meeting – to voice concerns about local law enforcement’s use of ALPRs and what policies govern that data.
“I want to make one thing very clear: We are not arguing over the effectiveness of these cameras,” Benson said during the public comment period on Tuesday. “We are arguing over the data collection … the question is whether every person who drives through Paducah should have their movements recorded and stored, regardless of whether they are suspected of a crime.”
Sam Coram, who recently moved to Paducah, criticized ALPRs for being too frictionless and dangerous in the wrong hands.
“It creates a system where any vehicle can pretty instantly be tracked in real time with basically zero effort … but that is the problem because, with a system this powerful and this fast and this efficient, the potential for misuse goes way, way, way, way up,” Coram said.
Police Chief Brian Laird provided commissioners with an update on Tuesday night, giving an overview of the system’s scope and data policies.
“We've had a policy from day one – from the time that we have implemented these systems – because you have to have something that's going to guide the usage of it, just like you do any other tool that we have,” Laird said.
There are 32 cameras posted around the McCracken County seat, most in proximity to “major federal and state highways, your entryways into the community,” the chief said. Not all of these cameras are operated by PPD – some are maintained by the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office. While information on which agency is responsible for each camera is not publicly available, both agencies have access to data from all of the local ALPRs through Flock’s information sharing system.
The data from those cameras is retained for 30 days, though Flock said in August that it’s shrinking that period to seven days. That data is stored using Amazon Web Services – though precisely which server is unclear – and accessible by other law enforcement agencies participating in Flock’s information sharing program.
Laird said he didn’t expect for the department to increase the presence of ALPRs in Paducah beyond what the agency already has in place.
“I would say I don't think that we're at a point where we would be asking to expand the program any further,” he said. “We feel like that what we have camera-wise … they've been placed in the locations that we felt like were most important, and I don't think that we are in a position to where we need to grow that any further.”
Mayor George Bray – who voted along with the four sitting commissioners unanimously to expand the Flock program in Paducah last year – called safety a top priority for the city.
“Certainly we want to recognize some of the concerns out there, and Flock is recognizing those [too]. We're making sure that we're transparent, you know, with our website and what's going on,” he told Laird. “I think this commission has stood behind our police department 100%, and we think you guys do a great job and we appreciate the work that you do.”
PPD’s Flock usage is audited quarterly, Laird said, by an assistant chief within the department. When asked by Commissioner Dujuan Thomas whether that could be shifted to a monthly audit, Laird said the department could consider the change.
Laird also walked the commission through the newly published Paducah KY PD Transparency Portal created by Flock. At the top of the page is a list of “success stories” by area outlets crediting the technology for its role in local investigations.
The public-facing website also details statistics from the last 30 days of Flock camera usage in Paducah, listing things like the total number of times cameras read license plates (331,938); the number of read license plates that matched vehicles being sought by law enforcement (582) – both from within and outside the area; and how many searches local authorities have done (183), among other things. The transparency portal also lists the hundreds of agencies PPD shares information with across the U.S. and which agencies it’s getting information from.
Coram – a signee on Benson’s petition – said the publishing of the transparency portal was like “baby steps” for local law enforcement. He wants to see some kind of compromise reached that allows police to do their job while limiting widespread public surveillance.
“I think we're all kind of on the same side in that nobody wants to be watched all the time, everybody wants to be safe,” Coram told WKMS. “There can be some sort of middle ground where I don't feel as if anyone's breathing down my neck, but … also [you] can find a stolen car. I think it's possible.”
After the meeting, Benson said he felt like the police chief did not directly answer many of his group’s questions, with specific regard to where the data is physically stored and how the department could verify that the data had been deleted after its 30-day retention period.
Benson said he’s hoping Paducah can be the first city in Kentucky to outright ban ALPRs. The YAFL chapter has been building support by door-knocking in McCracken County in recent weeks, he added. The petition calling for a ban on the devices in Paducah had more than 300 electronic signatures, as of Tuesday evening.
“I would like to see the Jackson Purchase region entirely get rid of them. I trust our police officers,” he said. “I want them to be able to do their jobs. I just want them to have the right tools at their disposal, and this is not one of the right tools.”
His group is also planning to launch a similar campaign in Murray – where the city police department does not maintain any Flock cameras – in the coming weeks.
