The Heber City Police Department has used Flock Safety cameras to its benefit for two years. Chief Parker Sever said, despite nationwide controversy, the technology is nothing new and nothing to fear.
There are 12 Flock Safety cameras along Heber City’s Main Street and throughout the greater Heber Valley area, according to DeFlock, an open-source project that maps license plate readers. Eight are run by the Police Department. Sever could not immediately identify who runs the other four but noted they could be purchased by private entities or may be old police locations.
More than 135,000 cameras are in use across the country. DeFlock cites concerns around the use of AI-powered cameras including privacy violations and the risk of misuse. For instance, three deputies in Georgia were found using Flock cameras to stalk people and later terminated.
Concerns around privacy violations include record-keeping of individuals’ location history. Sever sought to dispel that claim.
“When it takes a picture, it doesn’t take a picture of a person’s face,” Severs said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, when it takes a picture of a vehicle, you cannot identify who’s driving that vehicle.”
That’s especially true in Utah — a state that does not require front license plates.
“You don’t see who’s in the vehicle. It does not provide us registration information. Does not provide us insurance information. Does not provide us immigration status,” Sever said.
The only data received, he said, is a photo of a license plate. Once the officer gets that license plate, then a check can be run to confirm if it’s a stolen or wanted car. Even if there was a Flock Safety data breach, Sever said, all that would be revealed are license plate photos.
Sever said, in the case of misuse, there is “potential for abuse.” But he said there is “potential for abuse in anything we have.” Sever said he would be able to stop such crimes before they occur.
“If there’s a vehicle plate that’s run multiple times or something that’s not normal, the system’s going to alert me to that search,” Sever said. “Everything in that system is audited and kept for at least five years per Utah law.”
But that data storage timeline is limited to an audit trail of officer searches. Sever said that data is stored for detailed audits that track abnormalities. All other data is deleted after 30 days.
Flock Safety recently updated its recommended data storage timeline to seven days. The company also claims to have expanded audit requirements and given customers more control over how data is shared across agencies.
On that front, Sever said he is the one to approve outside use of the Flock camera data collected from Heber City-based cameras.
“If immigration came and said, ‘Hey, we want to check on some people, and their only crime is immigration enforcement,’ I would say, ‘No,’” Sever said.
That could change based on circumstances. For instance, if someone is suspected of homicide or other serious crimes, it’s generally a temporary, one-time granting of access, Sever said.
“Flock has said that they do not provide any backdoor access to any government. So ICE, nobody else has access to our data except for us,” Sever said.
The Police Department has another year left in its contract with Flock Safety. Sever said the AI-powered cameras have been “very helpful” in solving crimes across town. The Police Department has solved hit-and-run accidents, had hits on homicide suspects wanted on the Wasatch Front who were in the Wasatch County community and had hits on a retail theft ring that attempted to operate in Heber City.
“We stopped them right before Mayflower, and they’d stolen over $200,000 from different stores,” Sever said. “There are many crimes that we have solved with this system that, if it were not in place, they would just go unsolved.”
Sever said the cameras have also helped innocent individuals accused of crimes. For instance, a Heber City man was reported as stealing furniture off of another resident’s porch.
“He was buying something off Facebook Marketplace, and this person also had furniture on the front porch and just went to the wrong house and stole their furniture,” Sever said. “So we’re able to return that furniture. He was able to pick up the correct furniture, and we didn’t have a case report out there for this guy possibly having stolen products.”
Heber City Councilor Yvonne Barney, however, said there needs to be further discussion between Flock Safety, the Police Department and the Heber City Council. She said meeting with the company itself could ensure better peace of mind.
“People feel like, why do you have to have it down my private street? Why does it have to be here?” Barney said.
Councilors Barney and Aaron Cheatwood suggested that further discussion with Flock Safety may be beneficial.