Ithaca residents press council to end Flock surveillance contract in packed public comment
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Summary
Dozens of residents urged the Ithaca Common Council to suspend or cancel the city's contract with Flock, citing privacy, data‑sharing with other agencies, and security vulnerabilities; councilors said an update will be provided in the coming weeks and one member pledged to introduce a resolution to end the contract.
A large and sustained public comment period on Feb. 4 focused on Flock, a private vendor whose camera and license‑plate reading systems are deployed around Ithaca. Dozens of residents and organization representatives urged the council to suspend or cancel the city’s agreement and to adopt stronger public oversight of surveillance technologies.
Speakers including neighborhood residents, representatives of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance and Cornell ACLU, immigrant‑serving agencies and labor and civil‑liberties advocates detailed concerns about data sharing, national searches and weak audit controls. "Flock feeds that information into ICE," Mary Anne Grady Flores said, urging the council to have the cameras covered and removed. Nan Ruhr of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance said the DIA can be a resource in outreach but urged transparency and public process.
Several commenters cited audit‑log entries and national search capabilities. One public commenter summarized records showing national searches across tens of thousands of cameras and referenced letters from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden raising questions about enrollment in Flock’s national lookup tools.
On the dais, Councilor Divandini told the public he shared their concerns. "I am absolutely a no vote on renewing this contract when it's up, eventually," he said, and offered to work with colleagues on measures to deactivate cameras while the contract remains in force. Councilor Trumbull said he prepared a resolution that he planned to submit the next day seeking to end the contract. The mayor and staff committed to bringing a council discussion and an update on the contract in the coming weeks.
The comments were part of an hour of public input that the council allotted at the start of the meeting; residents who ran out of time were told they could submit written comments. The council did not vote on the Flock contract at this meeting, but several members publicly acknowledged the depth of concern and described next steps for more discussion and possible council action.
