Commissioners postponed decisions on whether to renew contracts for its 30 surveillance cameras on Wednesday, Feb. 4, after residents said they want them removed.
“I don’t want to see a big brother state ...,” Commissioner Shaun Shumaker, R-Fenton Township, said. “It’s a very slippery slope, and I was hoping to find a way that we can guarantee our residents in Genesee County — their data and their information — is secure. I don’t know if we can generally do that.”
The county is considering two Flock proposals: one would pay the company $60,000 to maintain hardware and software services for 20 cameras until September, and another would accept a $30,000 federal grant to fund another 10 cameras until July 2027.
A contract covering 20 cameras renewed automatically for two years on Oct. 1. It was brought to commissioners to authorize the $60,000 payment — something that hadn’t been done when the renewal was triggered.
The Sheriff’s Office oversees the 30 cameras, which capture photos of vehicle license plates, collecting data that’s owned by the county and routinely shared with other police agencies, but not Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sheriff Chris Swanson and police in the county have praised the Flock technology for assisting them in finding missing people, recovering stolen vehicles, and solving crimes, including homicides and violent assaults.
On Wednesday, Capt. Jason Murphy also said the Sheriff’s Office would be less efficient in locating vehicles tied to criminal investigations if the cameras are removed.
Murphy said the cameras were used, for example, to locate a vehicle driven by a suspect in a Fenton Township homicide.
“It’s definitely going to slow us down without this tool,” he said.
Last week, Shumaker urged fellow commissioners to pause consideration of the new agreements, saying he wanted assurances about safeguards on the Flock data.
On Wednesday, about a dozen residents added their objections to Flock cameras, calling on commissioners to take them down because of privacy concerns and potential use of local data by ICE or other agencies.
Flock told MLive-The Flint Journal last week that it never shares or sells data collected by its customers.
“(The county) 100% owns the data, and only the (community) can decide with whom they share their footage (if at all),” the Flock statement reads. “The reason many elect to share is because crime doesn’t respect jurisdictional boundaries, but if the county has concerns, they can decide to not share at all.”
Murphy said if the county doesn’t share access to its cameras, it would lose reciprocal access to cameras operated in other communities.
Burton resident Alysia Trevino was among the citizens who spoke against continuing the Flock agreements on Wednesday, saying Flock cameras subject the public to unwanted surveillance.
“We don’t have control over this data ...,” Trevino said. “We all deserve to move around our communities.”
Robert Link of Atlas Township also asked commissioners to end the Flock contracts, saying they leave data from Genesee County vulnerable.
“A large network of AI-powered surveillance cameras tracking our movements infringes on the freedoms that are guaranteed to us by the Constitution,” Link said. “We should not be trading our freedom for the hopes of a little more safety.”
Although Flock put pilot programs with the Department of Homeland Security on hold in August, the potential for improper use of the technology and other privacy questions have lingered in Michigan and across the country since federal immigration crackdowns have intensified.
In November, the Bay City Commission rejected a proposed contractwith Flock for 13 cameras. Earlier this year, critics of the system in Kalamazoo called for the city’s Department of Public Safety to stop using the technology.
Shumaker is among commissioners who’ve acknowledged the benefits of Flock technology for legitimate police work, but the county board has been slow to endorse its continued use.
Wednesday’s delay on the two Flock resolutions came after new questions about the potential contractual fallout of abandoning the program.
Brian MacMillan, the county’s primary civil attorney, said an escape clause could allow commissioners to terminate it — with financial penalties.
Additional time is needed to study the grant agreement and contracts with Flock, MacMillan said.
Commissioners postponed acting on the resolutions until a committee meeting on March 11.
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