BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Village trustees signed off on a $33,000 contract with Flock Safety to install 11 new surveillance cameras around the village but the agreement came with a number of questions from officials. 

Flock Safety account executive Joe DiStefano addressed a number of concerns from board members during his presentation, from accessing cameras, to storage of data and images. 

A national company that has over 1,000 employees, Flock officials say the firm helps solve more than 2,800 crimes per day, with 15% of reported crime in the U.S. being solved using Flock systems in over 5,200 communities. 

With a failing camera system currently in use, village officials have been in discussions with Flock officials for the last three to four months. 

"It's one more tool, I think, for the police department. Heaven knows that they need all the tools that they can get. I actually started this with (former) Chief (Jason) Olson and it's progressed to get us to this point where we are," Mayor Greg Paquin said. 

DiStefano said the firm employs hundreds of employees who believe in the mission to "eliminate crime and shape a safer future" while working with businesses and municipalities, something they hope to bring to Massena. 

Vehicle captures and integrations primary focus

Operating in 49 states, Flock officials said more than 20 billion vehicle captures are made each month with Flock Technology. 

Companies ranging from Dick's Sporting Goods to Home Depot and the United Postal Service use Flock systems, which can be fully integrated with the Police Department. 

Flock also integrates with NCIC, the FBI's National Crime Information Center hotlist, officials said. 

The company offers a number of solutions, ranging from stationary cameras to 360 degree setups, as well as license plate scanners, all of which are enhanced with the use of AI technology. 

"So, the best way to explain what Flock does is we are a maker of hardware, of software and AI technology," DiStefano said. 

He commented the village would opt in with 360 degree cameras. 

DiStefano said the initial setup would be the "first phase," with village officials being given the option to expand on the tilt and zoom cameras with additional cameras, license plate readers, trailers, enhanced audio systems, as well as video integration with drones. 

The Flock system would also include alerts that could be sent to police so they can more quickly respond to a specific incident within the village. 

Operating 24/7, the system would give the police accessibility through a mobile app, as well as integrations with other systems utilized like computer systems in patrol cars, as well as technology within the station. 

DiStefano said the firm is a "very, very fast innovating company" that continually rolls out new technology, including cameras. 

He said upgrades would be made at no additional cost to the village, per the contract offered. 

AI Explained 

DiStefano also took a moment to explain the use of AI in Flock’s systems, saying the system does not use facial recognition in any way. 

“We don’t do anything with facial recognition software,” he confirmed to trustees. 

AI is used with license plate recognition to read images of all passing cars to generate text data that can be quickly sorted and scanned in the centralized database. 

The function would allow law enforcement to search much more quickly for vehicles based on license plate information. 

AI would also allow for detection of vehicles and persons, in particular areas of view, including when a potential crime may occur. 

Wilson said that would allow police to more quickly and accurately respond to a situation, making responses safer for officers and the public alike. 

DiStefano also confirmed on multiple occasions that the village would only have cameras installed to begin with and license plate readers would be used. 

Funding for system 

Flock officials said the firm would waive the installation fee for the system, lowering the overall cost to $33,000 for 11 cameras. 

Village officials said it was their hope to secure grant funding to offset the expense so it would come at no cost to taxpayers. 

According to Mayor Greg Paquin, installation of the system would be “months off” as Massena signs the contract to be placed on the waitlist. 

“If for some reason the worst were to happen and we could not get the funding for this, could we opt out of the deal?” Paquin asked. 

Flock officials said that it was open ended and the initial contract signing would put the village on their waitlist, however no money would change hands until the system is up and running. 

With the current timeline in place, Flock would likely install the system sometime in April, they said.

As part of the agreement, Flock has a 30-day “Project Prove-It” policy, allowing the village to opt out and have the system removed if they are not entirely happy. 

The policy would allow the village to back out of the deal without spending any funds, Flock officials said. 

Village officials raise concerns 

While village officials appeared to like the proposal, some raised concerns throughout the course of the meeting. 

Village Administrator Monique Chatland questioned whether tickets could be given retroactively or through the mail after a crime is detected by the system, similar to a system New York State has used in construction zones on state highways. 

"If I were to run a red light, which I don't...will I receive a citation? Can you use it to capture a crime like that?" she asked. 

DiStefano said it would be important to have "the appropriate policies for expected use of the system," which would be completed through a collaboration with the board and police department. 

He said it was up to the board to "make those decisions" and "come up with the policies and best practices." 

Storage and data security questions 

Chatland also asked DiStefano how long video and images would be stored for and whether data would be sold by Flock. 

That was a concern also raised by Trustees David Broadbent and Ken McGowan, both of whom questioned how the data would be used potential. 

As with the current system, DiStefano said the default data retention period is 30 days. 

He said the company has a default policy to store data for 30 days, though Chief of Police Cody Wilson said in the event of a suspected crime the department would download any relevant footage to retain a hardcopy locally as well. 

DiStefano said the data would be owned by the village and would not be sold by Flock.

Chatland inquired if any local businesses were currently using the system, which would allow the police department to expand surveillance potentially, if an agreement with the business owner allowed access to their cameras. 

DiStefano said he was unaware of any businesses in Massena using their systems, however the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Office recently joined Flock to use "a couple of devices," but did not specify what kind of devices. 

He said he would double check to see if any area businesses were already on board with the firm as well. 

DiStefano also confirmed that with the anticipated contract with the village, the agreement would provide only cameras and not license plate readers at the outset. That information was also later confirmed by Chief of Police Cody Wilson, who said the license plate readers are not part of the current agreement.

As for where the data is stored, Flock officials said all data is in the cloud, which is hosted by Amazon Web Services. 

They went on further, saying with the cloud functioning as it does, officers would have access on iPhones, Androids, in their patrol cars, as well as on desktops. 

No specifics were offered as to which devices would be used to access data, including personal devices, merely saying it would be a "policy discussion." 

"Not everyone on the street would have access. It would be up to the department to decide on who has permission," DiStefano said. 

That would include sharing data with the county, he said. 

Sharing with agencies ultimately comes down to the police department, with board approval, to sign off on agreements with other agencies. 

Policies would be set by the village with input from Flock, DiStefano said. 

He went on further, saying agreements could range from a one-time use agreement that would need to be signed off on each time data is shared, to an ongoing agreement that would give other agencies direct access to data. 

Per Flock and village policy, all footage would be FOIL-eligible for 30 days before being deleted. Wilson reiterated the police department would download any footage relevant to investigations well in advance of that cutoff, allowing the department to maintain a copy of footage indefinitely on its own servers.

As for ownership of the data, that falls directly to the village, he said. 

"The data being captured by these flock devices is our customer's, that's correct. And it's up to you all to determine who you share with, how you share it with them etc. And that can be ever changing. You know, obviously the policy you'll come up with and we can certainly give you guidance as well from a best practice perspective," DiStefano said. 

Ring cameras integrating with Flock? 

During another round of questions, Chatland asked DiStefano whether Ring camera systems would be able to integrate with Flock. 

"If someone has a camera on Main Street, like a Ring camera...can you log into it through Flock? Can you get that information from their camera?" Chatland asked. 

Trustees and DiStefano said only Flock cameras could be integrated, such as those that may be at Home Depot, if an agreement is approved by the board, police and Home Depot officials. 

"We're only talking about Flock cameras. Just for an example, with Home Depot, say they have Flock cameras. They might say yes, that we can have access to them so we can monitor shoplifters. If we need it we can access it. We're not going to give Home Depot our videos around the village," Wilson said. 

While some trustees dismissed the notion, Flock and Amazon, which owns Ring, are in fact working on an integration that would allow police agencies to send a "Community Request" through Flock's platform to Ring camera users in a targeted area. 

The request would include details of a potential crime committed, the location and a unique code for the investigation. 

Users would then be able to voluntarily send any surveillance footage they have, though Ring officials have said that participation is completely optional and users can opt out of receiving notifications entirely. 

Ring officials also say that law enforcement will not be able to see who received the request, nor who may have declined to receive notifications. 

Some civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, have argued in recent months that the integration and expansion of surveillance raises privacy concerns and increases the potential for mass surveillance. 

Flock at center of national controversies 

While many support increased surveillance for crime prevention and detection, Flock has been at the center of a number of controversies as well. 

According to an NBC News story, many communities have pushed back on the systems being placed in their communities. 

Many have argued that local agencies tracking them with devices paid for with their tax dollars violates their constitutional rights and privacy. 

The issue is a bipartisan one, according to the report, with both conservative and progressive citizens and politicians alike pushing back. 

Data storage, the use of AI tools and a loose matrix of access to more than 20 billion license plate scans each month were also cited as major concerns for citizens across at least seven states, with many arguing it would allow Flock to openly share data with any agency and could lead to profiling by law enforcement. 

You can read that story here. 

Many also cited location sharing with the Trump administration as another concern, prompting Flock to issue a statement on their website. You can view that statement here. 

The national backlash has also led a number of “liberal towns” to backtrack on previous agreements and opt out of their contracts following significant push back by community members who said the surveillance was infringing on their privacy. Another concern was the possibility of the systems to provide a digital footprint of an individual’s digital footprint.

You can read that story from Politico here. 

Another story from NBC 9 News states a number of cybersecurity experts have made claims that the cameras are “easy to hack” and would give a hacker the “ ability to manipulate footage and a lack of mandatory multi-factor authentication for police users.”

That story can be read here.

Others say logins are also easily hacked and even being shared, while others claim the security of the system may also allow evil actors access to the systems for spying. 

TechCrunch recently posted a story about those concerns and the response from some lawmakers across the nation, which can be read here. 

The vast expansion has also caught the attention of civil rights organizations, including the ACLU, which released a news article in August. 

The organization pointed to many concerns, ranging from data being shared by Flock with ICE agents, to a story of a police officer in Texas tracking a woman for an “illegal abortion” conducted in a neighboring state. 

The organization also said the system may “create an infrastructure for corporate blacklisting and surveillance.”

Others argue the systems may lead to a shift from investigating suspicion to generating suspicion as license plate information is funneled into Flock’s centralized national database. 

You can read more from the ACLU here. 

The wide-ranging installation of Flock systems has led one organization to establish a database online to catalogue where all cameras and plate readers are located. 

Flock issued a cease and desist order to “Banish Big Brother,” which has yet to comply. 

You can read more about the legal challenge here. 

To view the interactive map, click here.

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