Madison Heights debates removal of Flock camera pointed at dispensary

at Madison Heights debating the removal of a flock camera pointed at a JARS cannabis dispensary. The debate rages on as lawmakers take to the reins in the use of this surveillance technology. Fox 2's Dave Kinchin is live tonight in Madison Heights with a look at the debate. Dave. Yeah, Rube, this is right the area where we were here many times looking at that flock camera that was blocked by this no flock zone sign. Well, the sign's still here, but the camera is gone. However, the controversy is far from over statewide. First let's talk about the situation here in Madison Heights. Here's our first piece of video. Now what we can tell you here is that this was removed as part of an agreement struck between JARS and the city. Now the final revised agreement will be voted on Monday night by city council here in Madison Heights and JARS posted to social media saying the camera was originally required as a condition of the store operating at this location, but store management says they never had access to the data. They never had access to the camera itself. Now a viral backlash ensued over privacy concerns, of course, prompting the company to put up a no flock zone sign to block the lens. Here's our second piece of video here because this is a much bigger story statewide. Tonight we are learning of legislation introduced just days ago designed to rein in how police departments use data collected by flax systems. State Senator Jim Runstead of White Lake Township sponsored the measure after learning of instances where officers misuse surveillance systems around the country. He says guardrails are needed to stop a wild, wild west atmosphere. The legislation means that the system, the flax system cannot retain the information more than 14 days unless there's an ongoing investigation, something along those lines. Because currently there's no requirement at all, all over Michigan, different entities can keep this stuff a year, two years. It's absolutely crazy. It also requires warrants for a lot of the stuff that they would want to get this for that makes no sense. What recourse do people have or do they have any? Currently, I think it depends on the locality. My understanding is that flock maintains all the data and then the police officer, police departments rather, that have these deals in place are then able to access that. And it's on a local level. So there's different regional contracts. So again, that camera is gone. The sign is still here for now that says no flax zone. That sign really blocking the lens of that camera. But I did email with the mayor of Madison Heights tonight. And the mayor says that this deal will be voted on Monday. He's still waiting to see the agenda. But that final vote to further submit that deal will be on Monday. Now we talk a lot about the license plate reader aspect of all of this, but there's a lot more data. We even learned a lot more data captured by flock systems and related technology. So we take a deeper dive and look at that tonight on The Edge reporting live in Madison Heights. Dave Kinchin, Fox 2 News. Yeah, Dave, it's interesting because on one hand, there's this whole Fourth Amendment, this right to privacy. But that obviously is not honored when you're in the middle of a street in the middle of a road. If we can see it, the camera can see it. It's really about the data and how long it's stored and how it's stored. Yeah, I think that's where most people fall on this. You know, if you're in public, you are in public. You're part of John Q public. However, it's how that data is stored. It's what's gathered. It's how long it's gathered. And if it is, you know, not used for an immediate investigation, but it still is on a file for weeks or beyond that. So that's really the key issue in all of this. No doubt. All right. Dave Kinchin for us live tonight. Dave, thank you.