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Mon Explains Flock Use; Too Little Too Late · Commentary - TJ Meadows

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  Speaker 1: The Monongaelia County Sheriff's Department met with members of the
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  Speaker 1: media Friday afternoon to explain its use of the county's
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  Speaker 1: Flock safety camera system. That transparency is commendable, but it
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  Speaker 1: came only after public concern reached a fever pitch, not
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  Speaker 1: just in monn County, but across West Virginia. More importantly,
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  Speaker 1: it still does not answer the constitutional questions. According to
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  Speaker 1: Chief Deputy Mark Ralston, the cameras alert deputies only when
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  Speaker 1: a license plate or vehicle description matches a hot list.
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  Speaker 1: The system records only license plates and vehicle descriptions, retains
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  Speaker 1: that data for twenty one days, and does not access
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  Speaker 1: DMV records. That all sounds reassuring, but here's the problem.
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  Speaker 1: The cameras don't collect information only on vehicles that are
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  Speaker 1: on a hot list. They collect information on everyone. Every
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  Speaker 1: vehicle is scanned, every license plate is recorded, every driver
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  Speaker 1: enters the database, whether suspected of a crime or not.
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  Speaker 1: According to Metro News reporter Mike Nolting, the system collected
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  Speaker 1: more than five hundred and fifty thousand images during its
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  Speaker 1: first thirty days, yet deputies searched only one hundred one
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  Speaker 1: of them. That statistic should not reassure us, it should
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  Speaker 1: concern us. The Fourth Amendment was written to protect citizens
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  Speaker 1: from unreasonable government searches by requiring individualized suspicion, not mass
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  Speaker 1: collection first and investigation later. Yet, these systems may help
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  Speaker 1: solve crimes. Modengelia County even highlighted a recent arrest. But
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  Speaker 1: that's not the point. That's not the question. The real
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  Speaker 1: question is whether government should be permitted to collect and
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  Speaker 1: retain information on everyone simply because it may someday help
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  Speaker 1: identify the few who commit crimes. The department's hot list
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  Speaker 1: policy also allows placement based on active investigations or warrants,
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  Speaker 1: not investigations and warrants. If probable cause exists to electronically
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  Speaker 1: track a specific vehicle, why not require a judge to
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  Speaker 1: approve it first. Ultimately, though the larger issue remains the same,
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  Speaker 1: the government is collecting information on countless innocent people who
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  Speaker 1: have done nothing to justify that scrutiny. These questions deserve
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  Speaker 1: answers from the courts. Until then, the legislature should establish
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  Speaker 1: guard rails for these systems, and other agencies should follow
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  Speaker 1: Putnam County's lead and suspend their use until such guardrails
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  Speaker 1: are established, or the court rules one company's technology should
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  Speaker 1: never come before at American's constitutional rights.