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Plainfield resident urges removal of Flock cameras; police defend use and agree to resume reporting
Summary
At the May 28 Plainfield Town Council meeting, resident Joe Cohen presented public‑records findings about third‑party queries of the town's Flock camera system and asked the council to remove cameras at the aquatic center and downtown parking garage and to resume quarterly usage reports. Town staff agreed to restart quarterly briefings; no removal vote was taken.
Joe Cohen, a Plainfield resident and fifth‑grade teacher, told the council he had reviewed documents released through a public‑records request (PD‑2026‑54 and an April 21 follow‑up) and urged the town to remove certain surveillance cameras and to resume public reporting on their use.
Cohen said the documents showed Plainfield Police Department searches of the town’s Flock camera network and that 30 outside agencies accounted for a majority of queries during the period he reviewed. He asked the council to “remove the cameras at the aquatic center and the parking garage, absent specific council authorization,” and to direct the police department to publish quarterly usage briefings that the department had produced during its pilot program.
Town staff responded at the meeting. Mr. McKee, an agency official who spoke for staff, acknowledged the pilot and said the department had stopped quarterly reports when the pilot ended; he said he has “directed the chief to let's start doing that again, just to see what we're getting out of those.”
Police Chief Prewitt defended the department’s use of the system, saying the cameras are placed at strategic entry and exit points and have “been instrumental” in investigations such as vehicle recoveries and an arrest after a murder suspect was detected entering Plainfield. Prewitt described the system as a tool that can help investigators narrow searches when witness reports lack full license‑plate details and said recordings are used for crimes such as vandalism in the parking garage.
Cohen also raised concerns about pan‑tilt‑zoom (PTZ) cameras that stream live video from the downtown parking garage and the aquatic center, and he said that marketing materials from Flock indicated features that would allow natural‑language AI queries of live feeds. Staff characterized the PTZ and LPR (license‑plate reader) camera types as different: Prewitt said PTZs in the garage are recorded and used for after‑the‑fact review, while LPR data is queried to identify vehicles associated with crimes.
Council did not take a vote to remove any cameras at the meeting. Instead, staff agreed to resume the quarterly usage briefings Cohen requested so the council and public can review how the system is being used.
The council also did not establish a new approval process for camera placements at the meeting; Chief Prewitt said additions or relocations “really come about in a couple of different ways” and that the department currently has 18 cameras under its control. Any future policy changes or council votes on specific camera placements were not decided on May 28.
