Journal Times Staff
RACINE — Sheriff Christopher Schmaling has ordered the immediate removal of all Flock cameras operated by the Racine County Sheriff’s Office.
The decision was made because Flock appears to have been collecting and retaining information beyond what the Sheriff’s Office understood or agreed to, according to an RCSO news release.
The sheriff’s office entered into an agreement with Flock with the understanding that information collected by its cameras would be subject to a 30-day retention period and used for legitimate public-safety and crime-solving purposes, the release said.
RCSO has since learned that Flock generates a separate data set from information collected by its cameras and markets that dataset to other government and private customers through its “Traffic Analytics” product, according to the release.
The release said Flock confirmed that the aggregated dataset is retained for up to five years, separate from and in addition to the 30-day retention period the Sheriff's Office understood to apply to all information generated by its cameras for public-safety and crime-solving purposes.
“This is not what we agreed to, and it is not what the public was led to believe,” Schmaling said in the release. “The sheriff’s office will not participate in a system that appears to use public safety as a justification for mass surveillance and the collection and monetization of information about innocent people. If Flock used the public-safety purpose of this technology to build a broader commercial data business without the public’s knowledge, that is a serious breach of trust. We will not tolerate it.”
RCSO has obtained legal counsel and is taking steps to terminate its agreement with Flock, the release said.
According to the release, the sheriff’s office will continue to explore the use of Automatic License Plate Reader technology through alternative vendors.
ALPR technology has assisted deputies in solving serious crimes, including a homicide, a road-rage firearm incident and a nationwide identity-theft operation.
“We are not abandoning a technology that can help us protect the public,” Schmaling said. “We are abandoning a vendor that appears to have violated the trust placed in it. We will continue to use ALPR technology responsibly, with appropriate safeguards and accountability. The technology did not fail the public. Flock failed the public.”
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