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Rangely resident urges ballot vote on town's Flock camera system
Summary
At a Rangely Town Council meeting, resident Mark Stamus urged the council to place the town's Flock camera/license-plate-reader system on a local ballot, arguing voters should decide and raising privacy and data-security concerns; council members said they would consult the town attorney before taking further action.
Mark Stamus urged the Rangely Town Council to put the town's Flock camera and license-plate-reader system before voters, saying the council lacks clear proof a majority of residents support the surveillance installation and that a ballot measure would settle the question.
"I would propose that [it] be placed on the ballot asking whether the public would like to keep this Flock system in place," Stamus said, arguing that a local election would reveal whether residents want the system retained or abolished. He told the council he could assemble a petition but preferred the council to consider placing the question on the ballot so the whole community could decide.
Stamus framed his concern as both a privacy and future-misuse issue, saying the system's footage and license-plate data are sent to the cloud where they may be analyzed beyond local control. He noted a $9,000 line item previously questioned in a June packet and said that, even if town staff see only rear plates, he worries vendors or third parties could analyze full video frames.
"For a few bad people that might go through town, every person in this town is also being thrown into this system of capturing their data," he said, adding hypothetical scenarios in which movement data could be combined with other sources to reveal when homes are vacant.
Council members acknowledged the point and asked for more information. Andy Schaefer clarified earlier remarks about how many citizens would need to contact the council to prompt action and several members suggested legal review before any ballot placement or administrative change. The council did not act on Stamus' request during the meeting; members said they would consult the town attorney and follow up at a future meeting.
Why this matters: Municipal deployments of automated license-plate readers and cloud-hosted camera systems raise questions about privacy, data retention and who may access or analyze footage. A ballot measure would shift the decision to voters, but placing an item on a ballot typically requires legal review and adherence to election and notice rules.
What happens next: Council members said they will consult the town attorney to determine whether and how a referendum or ballot question could be placed and will report back at a subsequent meeting. No formal motion or vote to put the issue on a ballot was taken that evening.
