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Residents urge county to investigate and potentially ban AI‑enabled 'Flock' cameras over privacy and ticketing concerns
Summary
Multiple residents raised privacy, data‑ownership and accuracy concerns about AI‑enabled surveillance cameras (referred to as 'Flock' cameras) and urged the commission to consider an ordinance banning them; staff said the county does not currently own such cameras and suggested inviting technical experts for a briefing.
Several members of the public used the county’s public‑comment period to urge commissioners to investigate surveillance cameras and AI data centers that they said were being used for license‑plate and other automated enforcement activities. One speaker, identified in the meeting as Joan, said she had been reading reports of erroneous automated citations and asked who owns and stores the data, whether the county leases or owns the cameras, and how revenue from tickets is handled.
"Who is making money off of my data without my permission?" the speaker asked, urging the board to consider an ordinance to ban Flock cameras or similar systems. County staff replied they were not aware of county‑owned Flock cameras and suggested that some installations might be state or private. Other public speakers and Zoom participants echoed concerns about AI, data centers, and commercial reuse of surveillance data and requested a town‑hall style briefing or a technical presentation from IT or surveillance experts.
Commissioners and staff did not commit to drafting an ordinance during the meeting but agreed to follow up: staff asked for citations and articles to review and suggested inviting the technical sources and the individual (Dave Roman, referenced by speakers) to present more information to the board.
Public commenters repeatedly framed the issue as a civil‑liberty and transparency concern and asked the board to clarify who acts as the custodian of camera data and how the public can challenge erroneous tickets generated from automated systems.
