El Cerrito considering fining Flock for delay in removing cameras

Residents in El Cerrito are demanding action from FLOCC, the surveillance camera corporation. City Council voted to end its contract with FLOCC, but the company is yet to completely remove all their cameras from the city. KTVU's Crystal Bailey joins us now from El Cerrito, where those cameras are causing some public outrage, I guess, Crystal. Yeah, Frank, this makes El Cerrito the first East Bay City to not only not renew its contracts, but also physically remove every single device from the city. And residents here say it can't happen soon enough. I mean, people are really fed up. Nikesha Koss is part of advocacy group FLOCC out of El Cerrito, which pushed City Council not to renew its contract with a surveillance company back in May. The contract ended in early June, but more than 70 days later, about half of the FLOCC cameras are still scattered around the city. As we see it, those cameras should have been off and down immediately. After the group posted a viral video of the cameras blinking, the company promised to remove all of the cameras by August 18th. That deadline has since passed. At this point, there's still 23 cameras that are up. Neighbors passionate about their removal are taking matters into their own hands, turning the cameras to face away from traffic and spray painting lenses. This one reads, why is it still on? Our privacy and data is not safe in the hands of private for-profit companies. El Cerrito Mayor Pro Tem Rebecca Saltzman tells me she's frustrated that FLOCC is dragging its feet and says city leaders are taking inventory weekly and talking with FLOCC multiple times a week about the removal. In a statement she wrote about FLOCC, they've made it near impossible for city staff to track the removal process by sharing work orders that El Cerrito staff can't open because we no longer have an active account. A FLOCC and privacy expert says the level of distrust the public has is only magnified by the company failing to meet its deadline. Driving down the street, there's a lot of questions around FLOCC in the first place. So after they make a claim that the cameras will be removed by a certain date, and they're not removed, that obviously further fuels the mistrust. The FLOCC out group, which does not condone vandalism, is asking the city to cover the lenses for them. We want those cameras bagged until they're taken down. City leaders are planning on fining FLOCC because of this delay. We did reach out to the company for a response. They tell us that they plan to have every single device down by the end of the week. I'm live in El Cerrito. Frank, back to you. And that was my question, by the end of the week. Okay. Crystal Bailey, live for us in El Cerrito. Thank you.