Honorable City Council Members,
I am deeply concerned about item G-2 on tonights meeting agenda that proposes the deployment of Flock camera technology across Menlo Park.
My concerns are about the right to privacy and about the potential abuses that are inherent in any mass surveillance system such as this Flock system.
Im not necessarily opposed to license plate readers, but theres a huge difference between license plate readers and ALPR systems and databases.
In this article, the ACLU lays out the argument against ALPR systems:
"For example, we do not generally object to using them to check license plates against lists of stolen cars, for AMBER Alerts, or for toll collection, provided they are deployed and used fairly and subject to proper checks and balances, such as ensuring devices are not disproportionately deployed in low-income communities and communities of color, and that the “hot lists” they are run against are legitimate and up to date. But there’s no reason the technology should be used to create comprehensive records of everybody’s comings and goings — and that is precisely what ALPR databases like Flock’s are doing. In our country, the government should not be tracking us unless it has individualized suspicion that we’re engaged in wrongdoing. We more fully lay out our concerns with this technology in a March 2022 white paper on Flock, and in a 2013 report on law enforcement use."
After reading the staff report, I find myself even more concerned. I would request that council ask some hard questions in tonights study session:
If we citizens are going to agree to be surveilled--and also fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars of precious city dollars *annually* to a private entity--what are we getting in return?
Where is the hard data--the statistics--to support the implementation of such a surveillance system?
What is the problem were trying to solve? And is this the best solution? Or are we just being lemmings and following along with other jurisdictions?
I understand the fear factor about crime, but every dollar we spend at the back end, on a system like this, is akin to the tail wagging the dog. We should be spending money on programs that uplift our community, especially on those members who have been historically marginalized. We have a better chance there to create a more just and equitable society in which people arent driven to crime by desperate circumstances.
Unfortunately, I feel this proposal is a done deal. If indeed that is the case, how can we guarantee the least amount of harm and protect the right to privacy? In the same article referenced above, the ACLU has laid out best practices for:
* Data retention
* Data sharing and use by others
* Database use
Best regards,
Katherine Dumont
Menlo Park resident
