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Residents urge caution on Flock Safety cameras; police captain defends program
Summary
Residents at a Provo City Council meeting raised privacy, misidentification and access concerns about Flock Safety license‑plate cameras; Provo Police Captain Robert Patrick said the system captures vehicle images and license plates only, and that broader law‑enforcement access is limited and governed by investigations.
Residents told the Provo City Council they worry Flock Safety license‑plate cameras threaten privacy and democratic oversight and can lead to misidentification or wrongful arrests.
"Flock is not necessarily... they have a financial interest," said Dalen Flake, a Provo resident, urging the council to "remember that you represent the people of this community and not a multibillion dollar corporation." Several other callers echoed privacy, reliability and law‑enforcement access concerns, saying the technology had been rolled out in other cities without robust public debate.
Captain Robert Patrick of the Provo Police Department, who said he oversees the city’s Flock program, responded that the system records vehicle images and license plates, not personal identifiers such as names, telephone numbers, dates of birth or other biographical data. "Flock captures a picture of a vehicle with a license plate," Patrick said, and "not anybody’s name, not anybody’s telephone number, age, date of birth, biographical information."
Patrick said officers access the Flock program only when investigating crimes that involve vehicle information, and that most federal three‑letter agencies do not have routine access. He acknowledged a limited set of partners—he cited the Postal Service and the VA—may have arrangements in constrained circumstances and said any broader sharing would occur only as part of a joint investigation. "If those agencies request access, the only reason that they would be given access… is if our agency was investigating a criminal act that involved our jurisdiction," he said.
The captain offered to meet individually with residents to discuss technical details and to provide further education about how the city uses the program.
What happens next: council members did not take formal action on Flock at this meeting; Patrick’s offer of follow‑up meetings and the public comments make further staff outreach and potential policy review likely steps for the council to consider.
