‘Putting up the guardrails’
Clinton Police Department adopts Flock safeguards
The Clinton Police Department has a new policy on when police can use Flock camera data, to prevent abuse and mistakes.
Police Chief James Campbell explained the policy, intended to avoid abuses by police of information from these eight license-plate readers, at the Monday Sept. 28, City Council meeting.
It was an item for information and did not result in a vote. Campbell said an attorney signed it the previous Friday, Sept. 25.
“I’ll always say public trust is number one,” Campbell told The Courier News, adding that some skepticism was warranted, but he wanted the public to trust the CPD.
Campbell said the CPD put a general order in place for the new policy in addition to the existing Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s agreement and the departments previous “records integrity” policy.
He said the TBI agreement can lead to prosecution of the CPD for sharing confidential information.
“When they are alerted to a specific vehicle for whatever reason, that does not in itself establish reasonable cause or in itself probable cause to make that stop,” said Campbell regarding officers using Flock alerts. “They have to confirm that on their own.”
They’re required to further confirm the plate number and do a National Crime Information Center double-check to make sure that there’s not a mistake.
He gave the example of making sure whether vehicles that Flock might describe as stolen had already been returned to owners.
Under the policy, searches can only take place during criminal investigations including for wanted persons, recovery of missing person, stolen vehicles, or violations of court orders, like someone being too close to a school.
If officers are searching Flock data, they need to put in complaint numbers to make sure that they’re looking for a vehicle connected to a case. If it involves a warrant, they need to enter a warrant number.
If it came from another agency, CPD officers need to put in an agency originating number and an offence category of why they were looking for the vehicle.
Under the policy, the CPD restricts use of its Flock data by other agencies to specific information it wishes to share rather than all of it, depending on the settings it chooses for particular cases.
Also he said officers accessing Flock data will need to train with a training officer.
He said in keeping with previous policies on misuse of records, officers who misuse Flock information can range from reprimand to termination.
He also said Flock is doing its own audits monthly.
Mayor Scott Burton said Clinton officials were trying to get more information about the cameras in order to make further decisions.
“We need to get everybody on the same page before we can do anything,” he said.
But in the meantime, the city needed to have a clear policy, which was the purpose of the new one, he said.
“We’re putting up the guardrails,” he said.
During the meeting, citizens spoke both for and against the cameras.
Clinton resident Nancy Cosgrove gave examples from other governments that used Flock cameras of the license plate readers making mistakes leading to the wrong person’s arrest.
She also said there was a history of abuse and that Flock’s internal audits showed only a fraction of them. She described them as being used to track protesters elsewhere.
“We’re headed toward this mass surveillance of everyday people and their business,” she said.
But another Clinton resident, David Worthington, said he believed the CPD would not abuse the data it got from the cameras.
“I have faith in our police department,” he said. “They’re our friends.”
CPD Capt. Brandon Floyd gave The Courier News more information on how CPD used its eight cameras before the new policy came into effect.
He said to get information, officers had to log in to the Flock portal “by their own specific credentials.”
Once officers accessed the portal, they needed to provide the type of offense, agency case number, and reason for search to access information.
Officers could then search by registration plate number, type of vehicle, color of vehicle, make and model of vehicle, specific date and time, and location.
Currently, CPD administrators and investigators can search a nationwide Flock network.
CPD patrol officers can search in a regional database, which Floyd described as including only East Tennessee cameras.
“CPD dispatchers cannot search the network,” Floyd said, in contrast to the officers. “They can only receive the alerts.”
Currently, CPD allows its officers to search for Flock cloud data from up to 30 days old.
Flock allows the CPD to change that time length for the agency or for individuals within it.
Other agencies accessing the CPD data can only do so with the same allowed settings as CPD, Floyd said.
CPD’s Flock settings previously automatically allowed law enforcement agencies within 500 miles to access the network.
Floyd said CPD currently does not allow access to any federal agencies such as the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
