Harris County leaders to launch Flock camera committee

We are going to go over to Commissioner's Court, which we brought to you live in our earlier hours and a lot of discussion was on flock cameras. So we're going to bring in Karis Belger, who is live for us at Commissioner's Court. So what all was discussed earlier today, Karis? Well, Rashi, the validity of using the flock cameras was a high point of contention, particularly between County Judge Lena Hidalgo and also Commissioner Leslie Briones. They went back and forth for some time. And Briones, of course, announcing just last week that she was going to decommission them temporarily in her district. There was a lot of conversation about whether the county should do the same. And we also heard from Commissioner Ramsey who mentioned that these were an important tool to help with safety, particularly in solving crime. And that there was a way to utilize the cameras and also to make sure that people did not feel their privacy was invaded. Ultimately, what was decided on was to form a committee with the sheriff at the head, Harris County Sheriff at the head, to try and talk about what exactly needed to be taken care of and how to best implement the use of these cameras moving forward. Good morning. My name is Araceli. I'm a resident of Precinct 3. I'm with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and I'm here representing the Houston Leads Coalition. I'm here to ask you all to cancel the FLOC contracts and decommission all AALPR contracts. The reporting requirements are nearly nonexistent. The amount of surveillance already in place is ridiculous in the county. Even this morning, just trying to walk in here to testify, it's a bit of overkill. Cops were too stupid to identify that my pill case was full of antidepressants and creatine. Made me take it back to my car. None of this makes us more safe. So that's what I'm asking for. No new jails, no ALPR cameras, no Flock cameras. And just a better reporting requirements since they're basically non-existent at the moment. And I think a recent article came out saying that a bunch of Harris County civilians did a dozen or so Flock searches this year. Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am. And I do think certainly free speech is important. And let's just try to keep limited anything that would insult others. Go ahead. Hello. My name is Catherine. I live in Precinct 2. and I'm a member of Unidos Juntos. I'm from, I'm born and raised in southeast Houston and I've dedicated a lot of time keeping my community informed as much as possible. I was shocked to learn that my commissioner had vlog cameras in our community and soon also learned that nobody was aware of that. Commissioner Garcia, as we ask for votes and as we advocate for you and for this new election, we deserve transparency and accountability. If you can't tell us exactly which agencies have access to our data every time they track a Harris County resident and every time they use it to spy on our ally, then you can't allow these cameras in our county. We deserve a say to commission these cameras, cancel the contract, and end mass surveillance in the Harris County. Don't surveil us, instead protect us. Thank you. And another big point of contention is just how many flock cameras there are in Harris County and how many of them are being controlled by county officials. Current reports stated that there were more than 5,000 right now, the county paying for only a small portion of them, a little over 150. So trying to find out exactly how many there are and how many the county is actually in charge of, that is something else this committee will take time to explore. Rashi? Kirsten, did they talk anything about oversight by law enforcement? Because I know that's something huge with Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez after one of his own there were some accusations made about abuse with flock cameras so there is a lot of question on what kind of oversight there is and i'm wondering if there was any conversation about that absolutely it came up repeatedly and one of the things that came up was a conversation about a staff member of one of the commissioners accessing these cameras they said it was because he was helping with an investigation into a crime But so that is a conversation that came up because if any county employee can access them, regardless of whether or not they're in law enforcement, that is something that members of the public expressed a concern about. And of course, some of the commissioners. And that is also something this committee is supposed to work through in the coming weeks. Rashi. All right, Karis, thank you for that live report.