County opens debate on Flock cameras
Public meeting to be held Sept. 10
A Flock license-plate reading camera sits on a poll outside Clinton City Hall, facing North Hicks Street. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
The meeting will be in the Little Theater at Clinton High School, 425 Dragon Drive.
Committee’s Chairman Tim Isbel said it will likely include comments from the Operations Committee members on the subject, as well as time for three minute comments from citizens.
However, the Operations Committee will have a new chairman and new members by that time due to the recent Anderson County Commission election.
The Operations Committee approved the meeting unanimously at its Monday [Aug. 10] meeting, which like most Operations Committee meetings took place in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton.
“This room would not be big enough,” said Commissioner Michael Foster regarding that room and the number of people who might want to discuss the cameras.
The Anderson County Sheriff’s Office has four Flock cameras that read license plates — three of them mounted on poles in stationary positions, and a fourth one which is portable, according to county Mayor Terry Frank.
Frank brought the issue to the Operations Committee and posted her concerns about the cameras to Facebook.
She said the cameras help ACSO apprehend criminals.
“However, as technology has changed, capabilities have grown,” she said. “Citizens rightly have concerns about the advancing technology that inadvertently may be creating a warrantless mass surveillance system, as I do.”
Frank said she hopes the county could advocate for a “strong regulatory framework on the use of this technology.”
She said the ACSO was interested in being part of the discussion.
“It makes sense to have the capability to use that technology,” Frank told The Courier News. However, she said she had questions about their capabilities and other issues, listing questions she had.
“What’s happening?” she asked. “How long are things being stored? Who’s monitoring? Who’s auditing?
“I think people want to know and they deserve to know what the technology can do,” she said, adding that municipalities across the country have gotten rid of Flock Cameras. “We need to take a look and put some safeguards in place.”
