Macomb County deputies tell Mount Clemens commission Flock cameras aid investigations, while residents press privacy concerns

Macomb County Sheriff's Office representatives presented an overview of Flock automated license‑plate readers (ALPRs) at a Mount Clemens work session and defended the technology as an investigative tool while residents raised privacy and accountability concerns.

Lieutenant Justin Lock, uniformed service division, said Macomb County operates about 30 cameras in contracted areas and that Mount Clemens has six. "We have 30 cameras in Macomb County in our contracted areas. Mount Clemens has 6 of those," he said, and described how the cameras read license plates and send alerts when a plate matches law‑enforcement lists of vehicles of interest. He said that traffic between Flock clients and servers is encrypted using industry standards, noting "Advanced encryption standard, AES, is Flock's preferred cipher for encrypting all communication." Lock also gave the locations the county selected for cameras and said the installation and maintenance cost about $2,500 per camera per year.

Residents at the public‑comment portion urged different outcomes. Jill Murphy of Lincoln Street called on the city to "denounce Flock and any ALPR technologies and remove such from our city," citing concerns about law‑enforcement misuse, third‑party access to backups and civil‑liberties impacts. Another resident, Nathan Carpenter, read passages he said came from the Flock CEO and told commissioners, "I don't think it's unsafe enough to have to watch everybody every day…It seems like 1984 is coming to Mount Clemens." Jeff Matthews, who identified himself as from the City of Warren, said canvassing there found widespread opposition and urged Mount Clemens to make contract and policy details public.

Commissioners probed how searches are initiated and audited. Presenters said searches require case or incident numbers and a reason code, access is limited to authorized personnel, and supervisors may review searches when concerns arise, but that the department had not yet done recurring, formal audits. On inter‑agency access, Lock said participating law‑enforcement agencies can be linked and that Macomb County is connected with roughly 200 agencies statewide and about 200 more nationwide; he said ICE does not have direct access while the FBI has access through task‑force arrangements.

The Sheriff's Office representatives acknowledged residents' requests for more public information and said they could explore posting contract details, frequently asked questions, location maps and case examples via a transparency dashboard or the department's app. Commissioners asked for follow‑up materials, and staff said they would consider publishing information to address questions and reduce misinformation.