Mounting public pressure against mass surveillance technology used by law enforcement agencies across the Upstate has prompted two local governments to take action to either halt or reassess the technology.
The issue centers specifically on Flock cameras — a term that has become shorthand for any automated license plate reader (ALPR) and named after Flock Safety, one of the largest suppliers of the technology to law enforcement agencies nationwide.
On Aug. 18, Oconee County Council introduced a measure that would prohibit the use of county funds or property for mass surveillance systems like those provided by Flock Safety. On Aug. 21 Greer announced a 90-day suspension of its Flock camera system while it conducts a review of the technology’s use.
Flock in the Upstate
At least a dozen agencies across the Upstate use Flock Safety systems, including the sheriff’s offices in Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens and Spartanburg counties. Police departments in the cities of Anderson, Easley, Greenville, Greer, Laurens, Mauldin, Seneca, Simpsonville, Spartanburg and Travelers Rest also use the technology.
LPR and ALPR technology is provided by a range of vendors nationwide, but Atlanta-based Flock Safety has become the lightning rod — and namesake — of the mass surveillance debate locally and nationally.
For many local departments, Flock systems provide a tool that can make a substantial difference in cases where time is of the essence and departmental resources are limited. It can play a critical role in locating missing persons, such as dementia sufferers confused about where they are, or child abductions that might trigger an Amber alert.
The Greenville Police Department operates the largest network of fixed LPRs in the Upstate. According to Chief Howie Thompson, the department’s 57 cameras are used for four — and only four — purposes:
- To identify stolen vehicles
- To identify stolen tags
- To identify a wanted person
- To identify a missing person
“If it’s not one of those four things, it’s kicked to the side,” Thompson said. “This is a force multiplier. Officers cannot be everywhere, every minute, every second of the day. This helps put more eyes out there.”
The chief said LPRs can be an important crime prevention tool, particularly in a community like Greenville with a high number of visitors and situated adjacent to a major interstate network. He said LPRs can alert local agencies like his to the presence of wanted criminals before they have a chance to commit crimes here in the Upstate.
“It’s a very helpful tool and helps keep people safe,” Thompson said.
Despite the technology’s utility, advocates and opponents will likely continue debating whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
Abuse and misuse
The immediate backdrop to the moves in Oconee County and Greer is the firing in recent weeks of five law enforcement officers from three different agencies for misuse of ALPR systems, including two Greer police officers fired in late June.
The firings are a local version of a nationwide spate of abuse and misuse cases involving law enforcement officers accessing ALPR systems for personal reasons, often involving the tracking of current or former romantic partners.
The spate of firings locally and across the country in recent months is in part due to tighter auditing procedures implemented by Flock Safety, according to founder and CEO Garrett Langley in a video announcing new measures the company has put in place to safeguard the use of its products.
Central to both the support for and opposition to ALPR systems is the vast amount of data such systems generate every hour of every day. ALPR cameras capture the license plates of every vehicle within range and store the information in massive data sets that are searchable by local, state and federal agencies all over the country.
For law enforcement agencies, such information can be an important tool in time-critical situations such as kidnapping and missing persons cases. But opponents argue the technology is ripe for abuse and that the data collected overwhelmingly involves law-abiding citizens whose privacy rights shouldn’t be sacrificed without a more robust and open policy debate at every level of government.
One of the key complaints of local advocacy groups like DeflockSC – and national groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union – is how mass surveillance technologies like ALPR systems are often adopted without public input or open discussion by elected leaders.
Oconee County Council’s action is an example of a concept the ACLU and EFF have been advancing for more than a decade: Community Control of Police Surveillance (CCOPS) laws. In simple terms, the idea is that the citizens of each community and their elected representatives should decide whether mass surveillance technologies are adopted and, if so, how that technology is used.
Flock fast facts
- Atlanta-based Flock Safety is one of the largest suppliers of automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology in the U.S.
- More than 5,000 jurisdictions in 49 states use Flock Safety systems.
- In the Upstate, more than a dozen agencies use Flock systems including sheriff’s offices in Anderson, Greenville, Laurens, Oconee, Pickens and Spartanburg counties.
Flock camera or not?
Most cameras seen at intersections are not part of ALPR systems like those provided by Flock Safety (pictured at right). Cameras at most intersections are likely monitoring traffic, not capturing data.
ALPR cameras in the Upstate
There are more than 400 active automated license plate reader cameras operating in the Upstate, according to crowdsourced data provided by DeFlock Maps (maps.deflock.org).
