At Thursday night’s meeting, the College Station City Council voted 4-2 to renew the contract with Flock Safety. It was a six person vote, as Mayor John Nichols was absent due to injury.
During a presentation to the Council, College Station Police Chief Billy Couch notated that the spike seen in law enforcement misuse is a result of an internal audit system launched by Flock in April of this year. CSPD Detective Stephen Schoellman cited that as a reason to embrace the technology, not condemn it.
Councilman Bob Yancy referred to the company as “toxic.” He says, “The problem is not the technology. The problem is the vendor’s open architecture, their initial lack of concern for privacy in its initial design, and the company itself.” Yancy adds, “They’re probably not going to survive the legal expenses alone with the lawsuits that they have. They’re undergoing layoffs, according to The Wall Street Journal. They’ve got targeted legislation that uniquely goes after their software architecture. They’re hemorrhaging clients all over the country, and they’re, according to Seeking Alpha, a very respected Wall Street periodical, they’re shopping themselves for a buyer as their venture capital firms are bailing and want their money back.”
Councilman Mark Smith also voted against renewing the contract. Smith said, “Flock Safety is a valuable tool for the police department, but the lack of public trust is a serious concern. And based on the information that I am hearing today, I’m going to vote against keeping the Flock camera. I also want to do that while we work towards clear, enforceable guardrails.” Smith adds, “We can not have it while we solve these problems.”
“If we can prevent one more aggravated assault of a child or find another missing child from another jurisdiction, that it’s worth seeing what happens over the next year,” said Councilwoman Melissa McIlhaney. “Let the courts work out the privacy issue and determine what we need to do. I’m firmly in support of any guardrails, but I don’t think we need to shut the interstate down while we get those guardrails in place.” “I don’t like looking at all of you guys, knowing that I’m disappointing you and the perspective that you’re bringing. But for right now, I believe the technology is important. I believe that it is making a difference, at least in that one little kid’s life, and it’s worth us riding it out.”
Mayor Pro Tem William Wright said, “I feel like there are other technologies that we use daily that I feel personally are more invasive than an ALPR. Cellular phone pings, I think, are more invasive. And yet, if I’m hiking in Idaho and I fall over, I would love for someone to know where I fell over on a trail so they can come get me.”
“Flock is not perfect,” says Councilman David White. “There’s another company, Axon. They’re part of our law enforcement tools that we use, but that’s not really an option at this time.”
Councilman Scott Shafer said, “I would like to see us figure out how to use the technology in a way that has much more strict guardrails on it and is more acceptable in terms of how people feel about their privacy.”
View the Flock/CSPD transparency portal here: https://transparency.flocksafety.com/college-station-tx-pd
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