Seneca Police Department ends use of Flock cameras

 

KOAM reports this evening that the Seneca Police Department will no longer be using Flock cameras.

From KOAM:

Beyond the technical and customer service issues, Chief  (James) Altic expressed concerns about reports of camera misuse throughout the country. These reports reinforced his decision to discontinue the program.

"There will have to be some legislation passed," he said. "There should have to be some better guidelines down the road. We do not want to be put in a position where there could possibly be anybody in the area that could get these cameras compromised."

The use of the Flock cameras has come under fire in many communities across the country, including Joplin, where a police officer was fired in January for allegedly misusing the license reading device.

The department became aware of problems with Flock due to a series of blog posts by Deflock Joplin Today, a blog that has investigated the use of Flock in Joplin for the past few months.

That investigation, which included public information requests to both the city and other government organizations, indicates the scope of the problems that face the City of Joplin and the Police Department.

These include a possible major lawsuit from at least one person who appears to have been stalked by the officer in question, with an apparent 395 license plate checks over a 14-month period that were labeled as "investigation."

(Screenshot from Flock Safety web page)