POUGHKEEPSIE – City of Poughkeepsie Second Ward Councilman Evan Menist and Eighth Ward Councilman Daniel Atonna said they want to end the City of Poughkeepsie’s contract with the Flock camera system, including the license plate readers used by law enforcement.
The two made their intentions public at Monday’s Dutchess County Legislature meeting. Menist encouraged the county to consider end their agreement with Flock as well.
Dutchess County District Attorney Anthony Parisi and Sheriff Kirk Imperati have established the ; ARTCIC, which uses the Flock system.
Dutchess County has used the cameras since 2007, and the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department joined the network a few years ago. As part of the ARTCIC system, Automatic License Plate Readers (LPRs) are strategically placed throughout Dutchess County to assist law enforcement agencies in the county in quickly responding to crimes or potential emergencies. The Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office publishes the publicly owned LPR locations on a dedicated transparency portal at ARTCIC.org.
Citing instances of officers in other areas of the country using data gathered by Flock for personal use, including tracking the location of love interests, Atonna and Menist want the cameras removed from Poughkeepsie and asked county legislators to do the same for the county cameras. Atonna noted that ICE has access to the data captured by the cameras, in direct contrast to provided to Mid-Hudson News. “There is no facial recognition, and prohibitions are in place. The cameras cannot be used for immigration enforcement (ICE), traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, or usage based solely on a protected class including race, sex, and religion, and personal use is strictly forbidden,” Reverri said, noting that the collected data is available to the linked law enforcement agencies for 30 days before it is automatically deleted from the network.
“I will be working with Councilman Atonna in the City of Poughkeepsie to end our contract with Flock cameras with all that we have discovered and now understand about the far-reaching impacts that they have, and I would ask that the county also take a deep look at how they are being implemented throughout the county and with other municipal partners,” Menist said.
Poughkeepsie Mayor Yvonne Flowers supports the use of the Flock system and their crime-fighting abilities, and wants to keep them in place.
“I will have further conversations with (Police) Chief Wilson and the vendor to discuss the concerns that have recently been raised by members of the public. The Flock cameras have been a tremendous help in several investigations and have contributed to reducing crime in our City. If the Common Council chooses to remove funding for this contract, then they need to identify another effective way to help keep our City safe.” Stressing the benefits of the technology, Flowers also said, “I know what this City looked like before these cameras were in place, and I do not want to relive that era again. Public safety must remain our priority, and we should be very careful about taking away tools that have proven valuable to our Police Department and our community.”
County Legislator Eric Alexander (D-25), chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is holding a on Wednesday, September 23, at 5 p.m. The county’s top law enforcement officials, DA Parisi and Sheriff Imperati, will join Alexander to explain the crime-fighting technology. The term Flock refers to License Plate Reader cameras, known as LPRs. Flock is one brand of those cameras.
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