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Residents raise concerns about AI data centers' climate impacts and Flock camera privacy
Summary
Two residents urged Urbandale council to scrutinize AI data center energy and water use and to investigate Flock camera privacy and cybersecurity, prompting council members to request follow-up with public safety leadership.
Two members of the public used the Citizens Forum to press the council on technology and environmental concerns.
Riley Lester (1201 Office Park Road, Apt. 601) focused on local climate and water impacts, drawing a distinction between conventional data centers and high-density AI computing racks. "A traditional data center uses about 7 kilowatts to be powered while an AI rack consumes 132 kilowatts," Lester said, arguing that higher energy use drives greater fossil-fuel burning and water demands for cooling. Lester urged the city to consider planetary boundaries when evaluating local development that could increase demand for power and water.
Cole Stanford raised cybersecurity and Fourth Amendment concerns about Flock camera systems and described specific instances he said demonstrated abuse of retroactive location-search capabilities. "Flock doesn't need a warrant, and it is retroactive location tracking," Stanford said, citing an account he described of a Sedgwick County officer who repeatedly searched a private individual's location history. He also recited contract terms he said granted Flock broad rights to distribute data and said he located unsecured Flock camera IP addresses online.
Council members acknowledged the concerns and requested staff follow up. Speaker 11 said it would be worthwhile to evaluate the encryption and configuration concerns mentioned by the public commenter, and Speaker 13 agreed to speak with the police chief and follow up with the council.
No formal policy change or vote on surveillance equipment occurred at the meeting; council members asked staff to gather more information about Flock use, contractual terms and whether observed security concerns reflect local configuration issues or broader technology vulnerabilities.
