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Residents urge Durango to cancel Flock surveillance contract, citing privacy and accountability concerns
Summary
Two members of the public urged the council to cancel the city's contract with Flock and remove around 21 cameras they said have operated since 2023 (cited figure $169,050), warning of privacy risks and potential misuse by law enforcement and third parties.
Two members of the public used the city’s public-comment period to call for immediate action on a city surveillance program with Flock. Meg Wilmot told council she is "urging city council to please cancel our contract with block cameras and have these cameras removed as possible as soon as possible," and said she believes the technology threatens privacy, can be abused by law enforcement, and could be used to track protesters or immigrants.
Bailey Terrace, a local small-business owner, echoed privacy concerns and said the scale of deployment surprised her: "I was surprised to know that we have 21 cameras around town. That's just too many." Terrace expressed worry about insufficient national regulation of AI-driven surveillance and asked where data collected by the vendor is going.
Council did not take action during public comment; the speakers asked council to consider removing the technology. The record shows the public commenters attributed a purchase figure ($169,050) and an operational start date (since 2023); those numbers were claims made by public commenters and were not presented as staff facts during the meeting.
