The Michigan City Police Department is asking for Flock cameras to be added in some high-traffic areas of the city, despite national controversy surrounding the technology.
Assistant Police Chief Kyle Shiparski presented the Michigan City Common Council with the department’s plan for Flock cameras at the body’s Tuesday meeting. An ordinance regarding the Flock camera plans was tabled by the council finance committee to be discussed at a later date.
“We’ve worked through many of the questions that have been raised by the council and members of our community,” Shiparski said. “And increasingly, those questions haven’t been necessarily about whether these technologies can assist law enforcement. They have now become about how we use them, privacy, retention, searches, information sharing, audit, policy and accountability. Those are legitimate questions, and they are questions that we take very seriously.”
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According to the Flock Safety website, the cameras are license plate readers that identify vehicle details, including the license plate number, make, model and color. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, Flock is “building a dangerous nationwide mass-surveillance infrastructure,” and their technology has been used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state governments to monitor illegal abortions.
The Michigan City Police Department has an existing Flock plate reader, Shiparski said, but they’re planning to reduce it along with its Raven gunshot detection system, which helps rapidly notify officers of gunshots.
However, they plan to add seven Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras, a Drone as First Responder, one mobile Flock Safety Trailer and five Community Partnership Cameras. The PTZ cameras will be limited to areas including the Franklin Street corridor, South Shore train station area and Washington Park.
“They represent some of the largest concentrations of pedestrian traffic, tourism, public transportation, businesses, festivals, special events and community gatherings,” Shiparski said. “We have not selected the exact locations for these yet.”
The department previously proposed 20 fixed Live View cameras that would’ve been distributed throughout the city, but Shiparski said the proposal was removed.
“This isn’t an insignificant change,” Shiparski said. “It came from continued conversations with council members, residents, local businesses, community leaders, city administration and others throughout this process. We’ve tried to preserve the capabilities of what we believe provide a meaningful public safety value while also being responsive to legitimate concerns about the size and scope of the original proposal.”
Flock data will be retained for 30 days, Shiparski said, which is consistent with Indiana’s records-retention requirements.
The department is still working on its Flock policies, he added, saying that they don’t want technology to replace officers.
Councilwoman Nancy Moldenhauer, D-6th, and Councilman Joe Nelson, D-3rd, both said Tuesday that they don’t want ICE to have access to information from the Flock cameras. Moldenhauer also said she’d “feel better knowing information” isn’t shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Currently, the Michigan City police doesn’t share information with ICE or border control, but if the agencies asked for support, the department would have to help.
“We have an obligation, as law enforcement, legally to assist when there’s criminal conduct with these investigations,” Shiparski said. “I will say, we do this in good faith.”
Councilman Bryant Dabney, D-at large, said he was pleased to see changes the Michigan City police made to its Flock proposal. He added that information about how to punish officers who misuse the system must also be added.
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“I don’t know how that would work with each case,” Dabney said. “But I think all of it needs to be written into an ordinance. … It’s really going to depend on the strength of what we do with our internal controls.”
Councilman Vidya Kora, D-at large, also said he wants to address how much information is shared with federal and state agencies, especially for people who are not committing crimes that the local department is investigating.
Councilman Don Przybylinski, D-at large, told Shiparski that transparency is key throughout the whole process.
“I think, although some community members don’t possibly like what’s being proposed, at least you’ve given the community the options,” Przybylinski said. “The council’s listening to the community and what the police department is doing to move this forward, to get all the procedures in one place. … We’re having this great conversation; we need to continue that in order to make this program soundproof so the citizens of Michigan City can trust it.”