Ferndale Considers Flock License Plate Surveillance Camera System

(Crystal A. Proxmire, Jan. 26, 2023)

Ferndale, MI – Solving crime is hard, and having cameras will make it easier.  That’s the main argument by the Ferndale Police for wanting to install Flock Safety Surveillance cameras throughout the city.

The cameras would get snapshots of license plates on public streets and compare those numbers with a database that would alert police if there are stolen vehicles, vehicles with alerts on them (such as Amber Alerts for missing children and Silver Alerts for older adults), and vehicles belonging to drivers with arrest warrants. Images of plates would also stored for 30 days so that if a crime is reported in the area, police can see what cars were around.

A virtual town hall meeting was held Wednesday with Ferndale Police Chief Dennis Emmi, Captain Dave Spellman, City Manager Joe Gacioch, and representatives of Flock Safety on hand to explain the program and answer questions.

They shared that the City has four detectives on the force.  In 2021 they had 19,895 cases to solve, and in 2020 there were 18,500 cases – ranging from property crimes to more serious offenses like robbery, kidnapping, assault, and gun violence.

For years detectives have gone around to local businesses or asked residents to view personal camera systems (like Ring) to help them identify suspects and see clues.  Cameras can provide details that help police solve crimes, yet relying on a hodgepodge of private cameras has limitations including poor camera quality, the time needed to track down videos and watch hours of footage, and the fact that many of these cameras are not set up to capture vehicle details or license plates.

Captain Spellman equated it to finding a needle in a haystack, saying “It’s a long and tedious process with a low success rate.”  According to the FBI, only 15% of property crimes nationally are solved, as are only 70% of violent crimes.

Flock Safety is hoping to change that.  Laura Ann Holland is a Community Education Manager for Flock.  She said that the company was founded by an individual who had been the victim of property crime and heard from the police that chances were low the culprit would be caught.  The founder worked with neighbors and set up a camera system that successfully captured images that helped stop the repeated criminals.

The logic is simple.  With the majority of crimes involving a vehicle, identifying vehicles in an area around the time of a crime can mean tracking down more suspects.  It can also help deter crime by letting potential criminals know that their car is being recorded.

The system is already being used in hundreds of cities across the country, with Hazel Park, Madison Heights, and Southfield being local examples.  Captain Spellman said Ferndale waited for six months after neighboring Hazel Park began the service so they could see how it works out for them before bringing it to Ferndale City Council for consideration.

According to the presentation, Hazel Park gets “hot list hits” daily, which are the alerts officers receive if a vehicle enters the area that is reported stolen, is part of a missing person alert, is part of a recent crime, or is associated with someone with a warrant.

Not only does the system track plate numbers, it can also identify them by make, model, and year as well as unique features such as body damage, bike racks, and bumper stickers.

While the system has crime-fighting benefits, it also raises concerns about the increase in government surveillance and the impact on lower income communities and the “criminalization of poverty,” which is the idea that laws – especially those with fines and fees – are disproportionately harder on low income residents.  The laws punish people for basic survival efforts such as sleeping outside, driving without a license in an area where public transit is not a realistic option, or being unable to pay outstanding fines and fees.  There are also situations where people have harsher penalties because they cannot afford quality legal representation.  And where lower income people remain in jail for lower level crimes because they cannot afford bail.

In 2022 the ACLU issued a report with a slew of concerns over privacy rights and ways that that Flock System could be used to assist in government over-reach. They also shared the ways Flock hopes to grow their business.  The conclusion states “Flock is pushing the adoption of surveillance devices by private parties and folding them into a larger, centralized network that is fast becoming a key policing infrastructure, all while pushing to expand beyond license plate recognition to other forms of AI machine vision and simultaneously making it much easier to install and connect outdoor cameras. If successful, the convergence of these trends — whether under the aegis of Flock or other companies — threatens to bring an entirely new level of surveillance to American communities, where it will further undermine Americans’ privacy, disproportionately harm historically disadvantaged communities, and generally shift power to the government from the governed in our nation.”

Members of the public also made comments at the meeting about the image of Ferndale as a progressive and welcoming community.  Among the comments was one from a business owner who was concerned that heightened police surveillance would discourage customers from coming to the area.

Holland told the audience that Flock had listened to the ACLU’s concerns, and that protections were in place to prevent police misuse.  The Flock system can only be accessed by approved employees, and a report is generated each time.  The user must enter a specific reason for accessing camera images. All images are deleted after 30 days. The cameras capture images only on public streets, which any individual could see if they were standing there.  The City of Ferndale owns the data, though it could be shared with other agencies at police discretion or if court-ordered.

In anticipation of public concerns, Chief Emmi created a policy that includes provisions that the Flock Safety system will not be used for traffic enforcement, civil judgments, immigration, or “to contribute to the criminalization of poverty.”  The City of Ferndale has been working on anti-racism efforts , with police being involved in the process. The goal, they say, is not to discriminate, but to solve crime.

The City of Ferndale is considering a contract of 1-2 years.  Cities can determine how many cameras they would like and where to place them.  The cost is a $350 installation fee per location, plus $2,500 per year per location.

There will be at least one more public forum about the technology before the item is presented to City Council for a vote.  The forum will most likely be a meet and greet with the Chief in February, though details have not yet been finalized.  Anyone with questions or comments is asked to email City Manager Joe Gacioch at citymanager@ferndalemi.gov.

Learn more about Flock Safety at https://www.flocksafety.com/.  Learn more about City of Ferndale at https://www.ferndalemi.gov/.