GREENFIELD — Amid concerns that the city cannot afford to fund the four Flock Safety cameras that monitor traffic throughout the city, Police Chief Todd Dodge announced Thursday morning that the department plans to remove them later this year.
Flock Safety, founded in 2017, is a video surveillance network that uses artificial intelligence to assist law enforcement agencies with investigations through a number of options, such as license plate recognition or facial recognition.
However, Dodge and Lt. Jay Butynski both clarified that the city’s use of Flock Safety cameras is, and has always been, purely for license plate recognition to locate vehicles during investigations.
“They’re license plate readers; you can’t identify operators from those cameras. They show you the back of your car or the front of your car — that’s it,” Butynski said. “There’s nothing that’s more than a snippet of [the vehicle]. There’s no angle where you would even be able to see someone’s face. There’s no facial recognition and there never has been with us.”
Dodge also responded to concerns about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gaining access to Flock Safety feeds, which residents brought up during Wednesday night’s City Council meeting.
While displaying the Police Department’s view through a Flock Safety camera, Dodge and Butynski cited the policy on data-sharing with federal agencies, noting that the Police Department set its data sharing to be by request only.
“We do not, have not and would never supply information to agencies like ICE,” Dodge said. “It’s not our mission, it’s not our purview at all to investigate or even ask about someone’s immigration status. It doesn’t come into play in our job.”
The city’s Flock Safety cameras — two of which Dodge said were installed roughly three years ago, while the other two were installed two years ago — have been of use to the city in the capture of Taaniel Herberger-Brown, who is accused of murdering a man in his Chapman Street apartment, as well as law enforcement’s ability to track the suspects in the theft of more than $100,000 from the Greenfield Savings Bank Money Tree ATM.
The city’s four cameras are located on Deerfield Street near the Cheapside Bridge, another on Route 5 near Denny’s Pantry, near the intersection of Solon and Elm streets, and on the French King Highway. Dodge said the first two camera installations were funded through grants, and the other two with law enforcement trust money.
While the department’s use of Flock Safety, which now costs approximately $12,000 per year, has not been historically funded by the taxpayer, Dodge explained that should the program continue, the cost of the cameras would eventually fall to the taxpayer — an expense that he said the city cannot afford to prioritize. The plan is to remove two in May and then the other two in October.
“Flock is going away in Greenfield, but not for any other reason than [that] right now, the entire city is suffering from financial hardship. We don’t have a lot of extra money right now, so we’re making the decision to end Flock, because it’s $12,000 a year that we’re going to choose not to spend,” Dodge said. “We just don’t have the funding. … Right now, we’re more focused on ensuring everyone can keep their jobs.”
While the majority of residents who shared concerns about the Flock Safety system during Wednesday’s City Council meeting feared the technology’s potential for abuse by hackers or federal law enforcement agencies, one resident accused local police of moving the cameras around the city and criticized the department’s request to access a Flock Safety camera outside a Lowe’s home improvement store. The resident claimed the store was in Hadley.
Dodge said that while he respects and understands residents’ questions and concerns with the technology itself, its vulnerability to hacking or the possibility that the technology could get into the wrong hands, the Police Department has never moved its cameras or used them for any “nefarious purposes.”
The chief further explained that while Greenfield Police did, in fact, request access to a Flock Safety camera outside a Lowe’s in Worcester, it was to locate a man who was trying to attempt suicide.
“We were tracking someone who was actively trying to kill himself. With Flock, we found him and saved his life. That’s why we linked up with Lowe’s,” Dodge said. “The accusation that there was some something nefarious about us linking up with Lowe’s in Worcester with our Flocks to save a life is absolutely false.”
Dodge added that his department has worked hard to build a more trusting relationship with the public. The chief invited community members who are distrusting of Greenfield Police to visit the station, chat with officers and ask questions. He stressed that building trust and mutual respect between residents and officers remains one of his top priorities.
Mayor Ginny Desorgher, in an interview on Thursday, commended the police for agreeing to take down its Flock Safety system. She explained that she believes the technology itself poses a cause for concern, referencing the federal deployment of ICE agents into American cities and towns.
“The chief spoke about the budgetary concerns, which, certainly, I’m always into tackling budgetary concerns, but overall, with what’s happening nationally, this isn’t something that I want or that I can feel the people in our city want,” she said. “It’s the extra surveillance that the Flock cameras provide … As the mayor, I represent people. I take my own thoughts into this as well, and I agree with many of the people who have spoken.”
