Dallas police removing over 300 Flock cameras

The Dallas Police Department says it will cancel a flock camera contract for 321 cameras after losing a state grant. The city will still have more than 300 flock cameras and now one city council member wants to cancel those cameras as well. Fox four's Vanya Castillo reports less than 24 hours after Dallas police announced it's losing state funding for its flock cameras. One city council member also wants to pull city funds for the controversial tools. They're all over Dallas cameras, reading license plates as cars drive by. While police say flock cameras have been helping them find suspects for over five years here in Dallas, one city council member says it's time to defund them. Council member Adam Baza Lua writing on Facebook. It's time to deflock Dallas. He wants to cut $1.5 million in city funding for the cameras and the system that supports them. He plans to introduce a budget amendment on Tuesday to take that step. Baza Lua says they're both a privacy and safety risk. There have been a number of high profile arrests across the country involving officers accused of using the tech to stop their exes. He writes, public safety and personal privacy are not in competition. We can protect both. The president of the Dallas Police Association sees it very differently. And I was just looking at the numbers from our homicide unit. Um, and I think this year, currently this year, the amount of cases that flock has directly help us locate the suspect. Uh, it's gone up almost 20% just just for this year, though the department may lose about half its cameras last week. The governor, who is running for re election, cost state funding for the cameras. As a result, Dallas police will turn off about half its cameras on the 15th. It's literally taking a picture of the license plate. The flaw camera does not identify an individual as the president of the D. P. A. About concerns of officers misusing flaw cameras and the protections in place to prevent that. Sean P says Dallas requires officers using flock to enter a law enforcement purpose, an incident or case number creating an audit trail. But he does acknowledge the system could be abused. Could I lie and put a number in there that I just make up and put a law enforcement purpose that I make up? Yes, I can. But now I'm putting myself up for even more, you know, of discipline. That's not lost on North Texas city leaders. Wiley voted to end its flaw camera contract. Hood County also moved to remove its cameras in Fort Worth. Police chief says he's reviewing the department's usage of the cameras as well. I mean, we did it before. We can do it again. It's just you're once again, you know, tying, tying a hand behind the back. You're taking away a very effective resource that we did try to sit down with Adam Bazaar Dua for an interview to ask more questions about his plan, but he was not available to speak today. Monica Steel Fox four news.