South Fulton calling for limits on Flock camera access

Right now at noon, South Fulton leaders are addressing questions about Flock surveillance cameras and what they mean for public safety and your privacy. Good Thursday afternoon. Thank you so much for choosing to get your news from us. I'm Alex Whitler. This morning's news conference comes ahead of tonight's planned town hall and Fox 5's Angelique Proctor joins us live now from South Fulton City Hall with more. Angelique, this has become a hot topic to say the least. Absolutely. Good afternoon to you, Alex. Of course, Flock cameras are a hot button issue And now the mayor of South Fulton, as well as the Georgia state senators, say they want to put some guardrails in place as it relates to these Flock cameras. So Mayor Carmelita Gumbs and State Senator Jaha Howard say they want to get ahead of some of these issues that have popped up with these Flock cameras, especially after more than 40 law enforcement officials have been terminated for using the crime-stopping tools for personal reasons. Now, these two elected officials say it's time to decrease access and increase accountability on the state, local, and even federal levels. That's why they are hosting a town hall meeting in South Fulton tonight to address the issue. Folks on both sides of the aisle agree that we need statewide guardrails. We're responding to the call across the state to have limited access. There should be actual crimes. You should be doing a real investigation if you're going to access automatic license plate reader data. So we want to limit the access and have a mechanism for that. Also, increase accountability. We have to make sure that the people who are using this data are being held accountable. We have a robust panel of experts in public safety, as well as the government affairs director for flock cameras. They will be there, as well as the professor from Georgia Tech. So we have some really good panelists that will share insight and to help us carry the conversation with residents. Talk around town gets started tonight at 6:30, runs until 8 o'clock. It will be at the Southwest Arts Center. Senator Howard says he's been meeting with lots of people across his district, and he says he hopes to have some legislation ready for January. That is the very latest in the city of South Fulton. Angelique Proctor, Fox 5 News. We'll keep checking in with you.