LINCOLN – Town and police officials will pause implementation of Flock Safety cameras in town as they conduct a deeper examination of how they would work, said Town Administrator Phil Gould on Monday.
Gould said news out of Cumberland about use of its Flock cameras precipitated the move.
“We’re not going to do anything until we do more research,” he said. “This Cumberland thing has people concerned.”
Gould said achievable guardrails and accountability through audits are not a high bar to set for these camera programs.
“That’s just a well-run department,” he said, blaming horror stories about abuse on bad management at departments elsewhere in the country.
When hardware and software is changed within systems, it also changes the ability of cameras, said Gould, and that’s a valid concern from people. He said he’s sending top police officials are planning to head to Connecticut on Tuesday for a big roundtable discussion on the issue with police who have been ahead of the curve on this matter. Rhode Island is perhaps a bit behind on aspects of that discussion, he said.
His idea to bring Flock cameras to Lincoln has always been from the right motives, said Gould.
“This is about trying to protect our communities and catch the bad guys,” he said, emphasizing that Lincoln has a great relationship with its police.
Gould previously made the case that the town would move forward with Automated License Plate Recognition (ALPR) cameras under carefully governed and enforceable policies, ensuring that they’re not used for nefarious purposes, and said Lincoln was late to join in even as communities all around it have implemented the cameras. He cited the positive examples of how the technology has been used to catch criminals and find suspects.
Check out the recent discussion on Flock cameras in North Smithfield here.
Read up on what happened in Glocester here.
