Northeast Ohio Officials Must Protect Residents and Reject Flock

People across the nation, including here in Northeast Ohio, are realizing protecting our freedoms requires local officials committed to protecting our privacy, not spying on us.

Unfortunately, many of our cities and counties unwittingly put residents at risk by contracting with surveillance companies that help the Trump administration suppress activism and target immigrants. The most notorious among them is Flock.

Flock was founded in 2017 by Garrett Langley–quickly garnering high level investments by some of President Trump’s billionaire allies, including Palintir CEO Peter Thiel, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Today, Flock has 100,0000 automatic license plate readers (ALPRS) in about 5,000 communities nationwide. Their cameras scan 20 billion licenses a month. The business model depends on users sharing data to create large networks.

The problem is, as Shaker Heights Police Chief Wayne Hudson said in a recent City Council work session, “the only thing we can do is take them at their word that they’re not sharing data.”

Shaker Heights is one of many Northeast Ohio communities contracting with Flock to house cameras within their borders. Residents there, as well as in Cleveland and Cleveland Heights, are pushing back, citing growing evidence that Flock shares data with ICE, either directly or indirectly. In response, Cleveland paused the expansion of its Flock contract to include a gun shot detection system.

When a community using Flock works directly with ICE, every other community in the network is also sharing data with ICE, whether they want to or not. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office, for example, uses Flock cameras. It also partners with ICE on deportations through what’s called a 287g agreement. It is not a stretch to imagine an immigrant living in Painesville could be photographed by one of Flock’s cameras while driving to work in Cleveland.

Law enforcement agencies may also provide informal assistance to ICE and Border Patrol. In fact, 404 Media found that state and local police conducted over 4,000 lookups on behalf of a federal agency – many likely focused on immigration.

Until last August, Flock vehemently denied any formal collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, However an investigative report in Colorado uncovered a secret pilot program with Border Patrol where communities like Woodburn Oregon and Loveland, Colorado found out their data had been accessed. Moreover, Wired.com found that ICE frequently uses “administrative subpoenas” – which are not signed by a judge – to request agencies turn over their data. Meta, Google, and Reddit recently complied with such a request.

But evidence is mounting that Flock puts us at risk. It offers ample opportunity for abuse, and has been used by officers to track ex partners, a journalist and personal enemies. In Texas, police officers used the system to track a woman suspected of having an abortion. Ohio is surrounded by three states with near total abortion bans – Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Last year, Preterm reported that nearly 70% of its patients travelled from Southern states.

In the United States, we still have the right to disagree with our government. But Flock CEO Langley has argued his critics are trying to “normalize lawlessness.” I would argue, we the People, simply want to protect our own rights.

A growing list of cities are refusing to sign contracts with Flock including Kent and Vermillion. Others like Denver, Evanston, Illinois and Flagstaff, Arizona, are cancelling theirs. Every local official must ask themselves if they want to be complicit in the rising surveillance state. It’s up to the people to make sure they come up with the right answer.

Jocelyn Rosnick is the Chief Policy and Advocacy Officer for the ACLU of Ohio. She lives in Cleveland Heights.

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