More than 50 people speak out at Flock public hearing in Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia City Council held a public hearing on Flock cameras Monday evening at city hall amid community concern over its use and as the city's contract with Flock is set to end in March.
During the meeting, Ward 2 Councilwoman Vera Elwood requested a motion to prevent the automatic renewal of the city's Flock contract, which currently includes an automatic renewal clause.
The motion passed 5-2, with Ward 3 Councilwoman Jacque Sample and Ward 6 Councilwoman Betsy Peters making up the “no” votes.
More than 50 residents spoke during the roughly two-hour public comment of the four-hour meeting, with majority in opposition of the cameras.
Prior to the meeting, nearly 40 residents gathered outside city hall prior to meeting to protest the cameras, with signs saying "Get the Flock out of Como" and "Deflock Flock."
Growing concern about Flock cameras has been raised in previous meetings, including several comments on Columbia's Be-Heard website. A mahority of comments on the site have opposed Flock cameras.
Community members fear that data from Flock cameras could be misused by "bad actors" in the police department. Other concerns include the placement of cameras, transparency about the data being used and the likelihood of hacks.
Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Buchanan attended Monday's public hearing and claims the cameras are an important tool when it comes to prosecuting cases.
"I can tell you we have an educated population, we have skeptical population and any one of these members are active in the community and they will hold their government to its duty and they should and that burden is beyond a reasonable doubt," Buchana said.
Columbia resident Jen Harper attended the public hearing and says she has been part of the discussions since CPD first started it's discussion on Flock. She believes Flock cameras are an invasion of privacy.
"Having a surveillance state is not what our country is about," Harper said.
CPD has pushed it is transparent when it comes to Flock with their transparency portal online but Harper disagrees.
"We don't know if they are being transparent or not because we can't get in the system in theory," Harper said. "We don't know if there has been people that have misused it without them telling us."
The city's contract with Flock is set to end in March and CPD Chief Jill Schlude said the process with the council will begin in January.
Assistant Chief Lance Bolinger said CPD shares their Flock data with the Missouri State Highway Patrol and other agencies in the central Missouri area that they have an agreement with.
There are 85 Flock Falcon cameras, 35 flock condor cameras and 73 oxon fleet license plate readers with the Columbia Police Department, with 13 cameras being used by the Parks and Recreation Department and three being used by utilites.
The Flock contract with utilities is set to end in September 2027.
In a City Council meeting in July, two University of Missouri students questioned what information the cameras can collect, who can access it and how long that information remains available. The students cited Flock’s alleged ability to scan faces and pointed to the company’s own website, which says its technology can search for visual characteristics such as clothing.
According to Columbia's Flock Transparency Portal, there are a total of 114 license plate readers and other cameras in Columbia, and 877,509 vehicles have been detected in the last 30 days.
The Columbia Police Department has publicly defended Flock technology, saying it played a major role in identifying suspects connected to an Oct. 31 downtown shooting.
The department says it used video footage to identify suspects and make seven arrests in connection with the shooting. CPD also detained a 16-year-old boy.
Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said that there are certain safeguards in place for Columbia's Flock system.
"Not just anyone can access it. It has to be tied to a case number. There are certain safeguards in place that they're not necessarily in all the other cities, especially in some of the cities that were early adopters," Buffaloe said.
The Flock camera system was first approved in Columbia in Oct. 2024. The first-year cost was about $584,850, consisting of about $539,400 funded through police and general city resources and an additional $45,000 contributed by the Parks and Recreation Department for cameras located in park areas.
