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Some Residents Question Flock Safety Cameras Being Installed Throughout Elmira

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If you've been driving around Elmira the past few days, you may have noticed one of these:

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I first noticed one at the bottom of Jerusalem Hill:

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Hopefully Flock gets better picture quality than I do.

Turns out, they are the Flock Safety Cameras that the City recently purchased. What is a Flock Safety Camera?

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Flock Safety cameras are solar-powered and run on their own cellular network, so there's no need to hook them up to city utilities. Flock Safety empowers security resources by integrating with local law enforcement and providing video that is searchable and easy to sift through, saving hours.

Flock cameras capture the images of vehicles' rear ends and License Plates, as they enter and exit out Community. The rear end characteristics of that photo-captured vehicle are instantly transmitted to Flock, and the License Plate and rear-of-the vehicle characteristics (color, make, Model, stickers etc.….)

As part of our subscription model, Flock Safety cameras for neighborhoods start at $2,400 per camera per year, with a one-time $350 installation cost. This price includes everything — installation, maintenance, footage hosting, cellular service, and software updates.

 

A lot of people have noticed them, judging by comments on social media. The Chemung County Libertarian Party has as well, and released the following statement:

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You may have noticed Flock Safety Cameras being installed around our fair city. 50 of them are going in at an installation cost of at least $17,500 with a subscription plan of $125,000 per year. The cost is reportedly being covered by federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which was passed in 2021. We are to assume that when that money runs out, the city will just add this expense to the budget at which point, the cost is paid through taxes. With an elected city council of only 6 members plus Mayor Dan Mandell as Chairman, it would stand to reason that the seven of them could come up with a plan to spend Elmira’s over $28 million share. There was a separate committee convened that included the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Joe Duffy, former Councilman Brett Stermer, and 3 unelected city officials (City Manager Mike Collins, Chamberlain Charmain Cattan, and Community Development Director Emma Moran). The process of spending that money should have been more transparent, giving the public a say in the individual line items for expenditures; especially ones that impact people's privacy. 

Flock promotes their products as a way to reduce crime. The cameras have the ability to collect data from license plates and other distinguishing vehicle characteristics. This information is sent to law enforcement in seconds. There is little empirical evidence that they accomplish what they set out to. “While we agree violent crime is awful, putting citizens under constant surveillance goes against what our country was founded on,” LPCC Chairman Craig Colwell says. “We are the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, not the land of the safe and home of the scared.”

Cities and private neighborhoods around the country are adopting this technology, and the cameras aren’t only connected to the city’s network. Through Flock’s Talon Program, they are linked all over the country, creating a mass surveillance state. If implemented honestly and administered responsibly, this technology may aid police in apprehending people involved in crimes. However, it could also result in more negative interactions with law enforcement due to only using vehicle data, not necessarily targeting who was driving the car. The cameras have already led to many mistaken identity cases in other communities around the country as well as harassment and detainment of many innocent people, including the black and brown population. 

Since this is now a reality in Elmira, NY, we ask, who is overseeing this program? Who is making sure it’s not abused? Councilman Nicholas Grasso said, "I'm a firm believer in and supporter of law enforcement. I believe in providing them with the tools they need to efficiently and effectively do their jobs; especially the ones that enable them to safely go home to their families at the end of their shifts while making our communities safe places to live, work, and play. As the saying goes, With great power comes great responsibility. We need to ensure the proper constraints and oversight are in place so this power is not used inappropriately."

The people of Elmira and Chemung County deserve the assurance that this is being implemented with transparency and accountability. This will be discussed at the City Council Workshop this Thursday at 10:30 am at the City Hall’s third-floor Law Library and is open to the public. The Libertarian Party of Chemung County encourages all to attend.

 

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Chris said:

50 of them are going in at an installation cost of at least $17,500 with a subscription plan of $125,000 per year.The cost is reportedly being covered by federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act, which was passed in 2021. We are to assume that when that money runs out, the city will just add this expense to the budget at which point, the cost is paid through taxes.

First.....I'm struggling think of any correlation a system like this could have with Pandemic Relief. 

Second.....using a one-time windfall to institute something with an ongoing perpetual cost is an irresponsible move, It almost feels like they fell for a marketing scam like a salesman talking a mark into accepting "free" product that has an expensive long term contract in the fine print.  It would probably be cheaper and offer more public safety to have bought Ring/Blink cameras for every property in town. 

Third....Taxpayer money is paying for cameras that record public traffic. OK....that should at least make the feeds public information that should be available for the public to access/view 

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kind of good idea except:

as MsK noted its a recurring fee funded from a one-time payment and at best this is now a 125k/year deduction from those funds that could have been better spent incubating new businesses, rehabbing properties, building out public transportation etc.

who the hell cares if this system ends up increasing apprehension of EVERY criminal that commits and offense? Since theyll be back out on the street in hours anyways. 

2 hours ago, MsKreed said:

First.....I'm struggling think of any correlation a system like this could have with Pandemic Relief. 

County did it with arena monies i believe( not that thats a good enough reason)

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38 minutes ago, Adam said:

County did it with arena monies i believe( not that thats a good enough reason)

I know, and the County also used ARP to buy weapons for school resource officers....bad precedents shouldn't be an excuse. LOL 

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Maybe I’d missed it before, but I read on WETM that they’re installing fifty of these things?!?

And at a cost of $250,000 for a two year period, then figure out how to pay after that?

Who’s idea was this?

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13 minutes ago, Chris said:

Maybe I’d missed it before, but I read on WETM that they’re installing fifty of these things?!?

And at a cost of $250,000 for a two year period, then figure out how to pay after that?

Who’s idea was this?

That's how the City Manager explained it to WETM (HERE)

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“It is a tool that will help the Elmira Police Department when it comes to hopefully solving crimes, hopefully preventing crimes,” said Elmira City Manager, Michael Collins.

Collins says he is unable to disclose the exact locations of all 50 cameras being installed but the black camera with solar panel attached shouldn’t be hard to find.

Another question raised during the workshop is how the project will be funded. Flock Safety charges a $350 installation fee per camera and a $125,000 annual fee for the service. The initial fee for the project is almost $150,000 with the annual fee due each year.

“We are utilizing money out of the ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding that we did receive and over two years period it is $250,000 total. What we will have to do at budget time in two years is look and see can the city afford that.”

$125,000 x 2 yrs plus $17,500 to install them....and then they'll "look and see" if they can find money in the budget. 😵

Edited by MsKreed

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Well, there are certainly criminals that those could be helpful to catch.  I guess if Hochul would let them collect bail when they caught them they might have money in the budget to continue.

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I am seeing these things pop up everywhere. It's not only amazing, its also unsettling. On Water St., from the base of Jerusalem Hill to Madison Ave there are three of them so far. At least that I've seen. 

I thought I read somewhere that these things can actually pick up speeders and send the information to police for a ticket to be issued. So I asked the company:

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That "unfortunately" made me laugh. Like, "Oh that we could!"

On 1/24/2023 at 7:51 PM, MsKreed said:

Taxpayer money is paying for cameras that record public traffic. OK....that should at least make the feeds public information that should be available for the public to access/view 

According to their website:

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Flock respects your privacy. The encrypted data collected is 100% owned by your HOA or community and is only kept for 30 days.

 

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3 hours ago, Chris said:

On Water St., from the base of Jerusalem Hill to Madison Ave there are three of them so far.

Correction: There’s four, with a fifth one on the bridge facing South. 

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Personally, I have no problems with the cameras themselves.  Lots of the bigger cities have them including NYC.  The purpose is to help them fight the criminals. The drug dealers, the hit and runs, the breaking and entering.  The murders.  The stuff that happens and with all the people there, no one saw anything.

Not really any different than my neighbors RING camera recording what I am doing out front.  And it does.  lol

If I lived in the city I would take issue with how they are paying for it.   

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Targeted to a particular troublesome neighborhood with a purpose in mind? Perhaps. But this casting a wide net “just in case” bothers me some.

 

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I agree that the perpetual cost is a little more annoying than just more cameras that we know are already everywhere......but the surveillance for the hell of it is questionable. 

It seems like we have probably more incidents of speeding and red lights than "known wanted vehicles" (passing specific strategic points) that I'd think actual LE are already keeping an eye out for all over town? Especially when whatever crimes these drivers are wanted for will likely just result in cashless bail once Flock spots them at "Point A", then LE go find their current location and pull them over. 

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On 1/27/2023 at 2:22 PM, Chris said:

Targeted to a particular troublesome neighborhood with a purpose in mind? Perhaps. But this casting a wide net “just in case” bothers me some.

These Flock cameras are so outdated.....the just sit there mounted on a pole?

Instead, they should add "patrolling" with continuous video, audio to their standard license plate reading capability....as is being implemented  NYC:

Source

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“Mayor Adams continues to pour money into the NYPD’s bloated budget, enabling police to impose new, dystopian surveillance technologies throughout the city without meaningfully engaging New Yorkers in a conversation about whether this is how we want to live," the Legal Aid Society's statement said.

These look like the same model that has done such a stellar job in private security applications. I'm sure it won't run into any problems in The Big Apple. 

image.png.397da2a98e15bfc0d5226f93f042930b.png

  • Haha 1

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This popped up on Councilman Grasso's Facebook page:

Screen Shot 2023-12-19 at 9.16.58 AM.png

The resolution reportedly passed by a vote of 4-1

Do we know if there's any data showing the benefit of these cameras to date?

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Sadly, the voices of reason are crying out in a vast wilderness of apathy and ignorance.

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