St. Clair Shores residents concerned over Flock cameras

tonight. St Clair Shores residents want out of a five year contract. The city signed with flock safety last year. The pushback follows a massive wave of privacy concerns and reports of misuse around the county. Let's get live. The Fox News Dave Kitchen, who attended tonight's meeting and has the details Dave. Yeah, here's where things stand right now. The mayor of ST Clair Shores said tonight at the end of the meeting that the city council is going to work with the city administration here and the police chief and in two weeks they will let the public know what they decide in terms of flocks future in ST Clair Shores. Take a look at video of the meeting. Now we're talking about 12 cameras, 12 flock cameras that are in ST Clair Shores currently operating. Many residents want them taken offline at the very least until policies can be reviewed. The flock issue was not even on the agenda tonight, but just like in many towns, it gained interest following recent social media chatter over privacy rights, the information gathered retention and who has access to it. We have more video of flock cameras because it's a nonstop issue around michigan that we keep talking about ST Clair Shores. Originally the city council adopted flock in a 5 to 0 vote of approval from city council last year with relatively low friction. In fact, officials here tried to get ahead of the anxiety by spelling out strict parameters and guardrails saying the cameras would be used for investigations only and paid for through drug forfeiture money and it would have a 30 day limit on data retention. However, that wave of local and national pushback prompted many cities including Ferndale, Westland, Sumter Township and Lansing to make moves that either roll back or terminate their contracts with with flock altogether. That brings us to tonight's meeting. Listen in as far as I'm concerned, every member of the council who voted for them knowing they should be that they were unconstitutional should be removed from office. If the city is going to deploy technology capable of tracking vehicles throughout our community, residents deserve clear answers before that system is put in place, not after. Do you go to a liquor store, a church, a gun store, a dispensary flock knows if you did, the data is there. It just needs to be harvested. This is dangerous information with far reaching consequence and is right for abuse. A few of the council members did speak out and they say they share the concerns about privacy. Also, they say they don't want a surveillance situation here. They have the same worries about data retention, about who can use this data. And the mayor again said that they're going to meet with the council is going to meet with the city administration, basically a city manager and the police chief. And over the next two weeks, they're going to figure out what they will do about flock and they will let the public know at their next meeting. So we'll stay tuned in on this one for sure. Tonight, though, on the edge, you'll hear from some of those city leaders on where they actually stand right now. That's tonight on the edge. We're live in ST Clair Shores. Dave Kinshan Fox two news. Yeah, recent study by Washington Post showed that close to 70 cases of officers in this country who have misused flock cameras for personal gain looking at X's and surveilling license plates of women that they've been in relationships with. That has certainly played a role in the national dialogue around flock. Yeah, it really has. And we talked with state lawmakers about how they want to respond to that. And there are efforts to look at training. So making sure that police officers are better trained to make sure that that doesn't happen. But of course, others in law enforcement say it's really about accountability. You shouldn't need training to do to learn how to not do something you shouldn't be doing in the first place. Yeah. And tracking how these flood cameras are accessed by law enforcement. Such an important piece of it. Dave Kinshan forced life tonight. Dave, thank you.