City looks at current use of Flock cameras

By Grace Lovins

Amid growing concerns over the use of Flock cameras county-wide, Birmingham City Commissioners took a look at the topic during the Monday, April 27, meeting, with city police chief Scott Grewe advocating for the department’s use of Flock cameras and addressing general concerns about privacy and surveillance.

In a report, written by Grewe, included in the meeting packet, Grewe explains that the city entered into an agreement with Flock Safety in 2023. The city’s department only uses Flock’s License Plate Reader technology, which he said only collects a snapshot of the rear of a vehicle which shows the license plate, make, model and color.

Grewe also includes in the report that the snapshots collected are securely stored by Flock Safety and automatically deleted after 30 days. In the report and during the meeting discussions, he stressed that the eight Flock cameras placed throughout the city do not collect biometric or facial recognition.

According to Grewe, the department has the option to share their data with other departments if another department requests it. The data is not shared state-wide or federally, and when another department accesses the data, they have to log a reason for accessing it.

Grewe said he has not seen any wrongdoing or evidence of wrongdoing in the system, noting that the department’s audits of the system show a complaint number and reason for every time the data was accessed. He also added that the city department can decide to revoke another department’s access to their data.

Commissioners Therese Longe, Kevin Kozlowski and Clinton Baller each noted a concern they’ve heard about the type of data the cameras collect and how that data is used. Grewe affirmed that the way the city uses the cameras only provides a picture showing the license plate of a car at a specific time by a specific camera.

“The benefit we get from [Flock] right now is amazing. I think it has a direct impact on the crime that we’re having and our ability to catch criminals,” Grewe said.

He noted in the meeting packet that, in addition to helping with criminal cases, the data has helped the department located a missing 89-year-old, assist in locating a possible suicidal person and locating a missing person with dimetia.

No formal action was taken by the commission following their discussion of the report.