Of particular controversy is the option of joining the privately owned Flock Safety camera network, which is spreading to thousands of communities around the United States. The cameras — installed at entrance points to a city — can track the color, model and license plate of every vehicle that comes and goes.
The City Council recently heard public opinion on a proposal to bring Flock to Mankato and is expected to make a decision as soon as next month on whether to move forward on that and a slate of other expansions of video monitoring throughout the community.
Elsewhere, communities are moving in both directions.
The Denver City Council recently voted against a $666,000 contract extension to continue the Flock network’s presence there, according to Colorado Public Radio. Since the installation of 111 solar-powered cameras a year ago, city officials credited the Flock images for leading to 289 arrests, 170 recovered vehicles and 29 recovered firearms.
But the camera system also prompted a backlash by residents concerned about privacy and the potential for abuse, including dozens who attended a Denver council meeting in April holding signs that stated “Flock No.”
In the past several weeks, several other communities also faced the Flock choice. Ashville, Alabama, voted to double the four Flock cameras already in place there, not counting those sponsored by the local sheriff’s office. Inola, Oklahoma, on a 3-2 City Council vote decided to join the network. So did Lenawee County, Michigan, which decided to start small with seven cameras to ensure the program was implemented with proper oversight, according to a WLEN Radio report. Guthrie, Oklahoma, voted to discontinue its Flock subscription, although the reason was financial rather than philosophical.
And in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill regulating the data collected by Flock cameras, something aimed at bolstering the constitutionality of the system in the wake of a lawsuit.
In Mankato, a majority of council members appeared to be favorable toward joining the Flock network as well as adopting a range of new and expanded camera systems during a discussion at the council’s final meeting in April.
The discussion followed a review of the results of an engagement effort to gauge public opinion on the topic. An online survey brought a strong mix of opinions from respondents about the plans to add more high-definition cameras, activate license-plate readers in squad cars and parking ramps, use tracking software powered by artificial intelligence and acquire a mobile surveillance trailer that can be set up in targeted locations.
Emails sent to the city were all but universal in their opposition, particularly to the Flock component. Those comments, while forwarded and signed by local residents, were virtually identical in wording and seemed to have been generated by a California-based chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
All of the citizens testifying during the meeting’s public forum urged the council to reject what the Department of Public Safety refers to as “public safety technology enhancements.”
Chris Schoenstedt, of Mankato, said the advice of organizations like the ACLU should be heeded considering the violations of basic civil liberties by the federal government in recent months. Schoenstedt predicted Mankato’s local policies for use of the data will eventually be overridden by federal officials.
“It’s not if but when the federal government, including ICE, will take the opportunity to use this wide-reaching warrantless surveillance,” he said, asking the council to block all the proposed additional technology. “We need to make sure the opportunity for this type of attack on our civil liberties never exists in the first place.”
Becky Dimock echoed those comments.
“I’m with everyone else in my fear of joining the nationwide web of cameras that can track my comings and goings,” Dimock said. “I don’t want to be someone who’s like, ‘Well, you’re not doing anything wrong, so why should it matter?’ It just matters.”
Public Safety Director Jeremy Clifton said he valued the input and pledged to include elements of it in a final policy that will govern how the systems are used and how privacy is safeguarded.
“We are listening and we’re paying attention,” Clifton said.
Mayor Najwa Massad, too, said she heard the concerns but considers citizen safety to be the council’s foremost duty.
“To me, it is our responsibility to take care of you, to make sure you are safe at every turn ...,” Massad said, adding that the sentiment includes ensuring technology isn’t used to target non-citizens.
Council members also talked about their faith in the Public Safety Department’s commitment to protecting privacy, along with the procedures being put in place to ensure the camera systems are not misused.
Online comments — which were anonymous because city officials removed the names of commenters before making them available to the public — were very mixed.
“Absolutely Not! This is nothing more than another way to invade people’s privacy. This will be abused to the nth degree and everyone knows it,” one person wrote. “... One thousand times ‘NO!!’”
Another commenter had an opposite opinion: “Police can’t be everywhere at every point in time. These are perfect technology to have eyes everywhere at every time. ... When crime does happen, we want to quickly be able to respond and gather evidence to find suspects, find witnesses, make an arrest, and successfully prosecute criminals.”
Others were more succinct: “Strongly support as long as there is transparency and accountability!”
Or had opinions about specific elements.
“I do not like the idea of joining the national surveillance network. That is WAY too ‘big brother’ for me.”
For another, the mobile surveillance trailer was a step too far: “That’s just creepy.”
Council members questioned how the systems would be used, including Jessica Hatanpa asking Clifton to verify that the point of the cameras was not to have Public Safety personnel monitoring people as they move through public spaces.
Clifton said watching in real time is an option for Mankato police, and live feeds already are displayed in the dispatch center at the Blue Earth County Government Center.
“If we wanted to look at what was happening downtown on a Friday night, we could do that,” he said.
Primarily, though, the video captured by the 541 existing municipal cameras is stored for a period of time and is never looked at unless a specific crime or other incident prompts it to be reviewed. The new AI software would allow those reviews to be more efficient and less time consuming, permitting investigators to plug in descriptions of a person or vehicle of interest.
If police wanted to find or surveil in real time a specific resident suspected of a crime, they typically could use the camera systems to do that only after obtaining a signed warrant from a judge, similar to what is required when tracking a person via their cellphone’s location, Clifton said.
Employees in the police department could tap into the videos and data from license plate readers only by entering officer-specific log-ins and passwords, which will create accountability and audit trails if anyone misuses the camera systems to track someone for personal — rather than professional — reasons.
And the data collected by the Flock cameras would be released to other agencies only when the requesting investigator supplies in writing his or her name, the name of his or her agency and the reason for the request, Clifton said.
Council member Kevin Mettler was satisfied with the city’s efforts to responsibly implement the new and expanded technology.
“It’s fallible and everything’s fallible,” Mettler said. “But, again, we’re taking every step we can possibly take to ensure that we’re protecting the citizens ... . We understand how it can be misused, but I think we’re taking every precaution to make sure it is not.”
If the proposal is approved by the council in its entirety, the estimated $130,000 cost would be financed with special public safety aid allocated to cities by the 2023 Minnesota Legislature using a portion of the state budget surplus.
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