Debate brews over Flock Safety cameras in Oakland

There are more than 200 Flock Safety cameras in Oakland, but many are asking whether they are doing more harm than good.

A coalition of Oakland community members frustrated by crime is fighting to keep Flock cameras, one of the few tools they believe help police catch criminals.

“The cameras have assisted us tremendously not only with the speeding, the robberies, the assaults on people,” Councilmember Noell Gallo said.

However, a move is underway to pull the plug on the Flock camera program. The city’s privacy commission is meeting on Thursday to make a recommendation. Some residents are pushing for them to shut the cameras down.

“As a sanctuary city sworn to protect undocumented people, do we need more mass surveillance?” Cat Brooks, executive director of the Anti Police-Terror Project, questioned.

Brooks said Oakland’s undocumented community is currently at major risk and Flock cameras put them in even more danger.

“Flock is not the company that we trust not to share our data. It’s just not. They’re gonna sell it to the highest bidder or they’re gonna share it because President Donald Trump…says he wants it,” Brooks said.

Gallo insists the data from the cameras is not being shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“It’s very clear that our police department does not have cooperation with ICE,” Gallo said.

Some community members also think that with the police department severely understaffed, cameras are a tool the city simply cannot do without.

“For them to try to take them away now it doesn’t make sense because definitely the cameras help,” resident Francisco Acosta said. “They help the police officers to identify any cars that are being used to commit crimes.”

While the privacy commission will make a recommendation on the Flock cameras, the Oakland City Council will have the final say.

Source: NBC Bay Area