Flock camera public hearing amid concerns from some Columbia residents
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia City Council is set to hold a public hearing on Flock cameras Monday amid community concern.
The meeting will be held at the City Hall Council Chamber at 6 p.m. Monday. Officials and residents will discuss the automated license plate readers and the city’s contract with Flock, which ends in March 2027.
Growing concern about Flock cameras has been raised in previous meetings, including several comments on Columbia’s Be-Heard website. Most comments on the site have opposed Flock cameras.
Community members fear that data from Flock cameras will be misused by “bad actors” in the police department. Other concerns include the placement of cameras, transparency about the data being used and the likelihood of hacks.
In a City Council meeting in July, two University of Missouri students questioned what information the cameras can collect, who can access it and how long that information remains available. The students cited Flock’s alleged ability to scan faces and pointed to the company’s own website, which says its technology can search for visual characteristics such as clothing.
According to Columbia’s Flock Transparency Portal, there are a total of 114 license plate readers and other cameras in Columbia, and 877,509 vehicles have been detected in the last 30 days.
The Columbia Police Department has publicly defended Flock technology, saying it played a major role in identifying suspects connected to an Oct. 31 downtown shooting.
The department says it used video footage to identify suspects and make seven arrests in connection with the shooting. CPD also detained a 16-year-old boy.
Mayor Barbara Buffaloe said that there are certain safeguards in place for Columbia’s Flock system.
“Not just anyone can access it. It has to be tied to a case number. There are certain safeguards in place that they’re not necessarily in all the other cities, especially in some of the cities that were early adopters,” Buffaloe said.
The Flock camera system was first approved in Columbia in Oct. 2024. The first-year cost was about $584,850, consisting of about $539,400 funded through police and general city resources and an additional $45,000 contributed by the Parks and Recreation Department for cameras located in park areas.
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