Surveillance Company Defends Clay Roadside Cameras

We Don't 'Record,' We Only Take Motion-Activated Stills of Each Passing Car

This photo of a Flock surveillance camera was taken from the parking lot of the Dollar General on Route 16W. It is one of 95 roadside camera’s quietly installed this year by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.

Editors at Clay News & Views happily reprint Flock’s response in full and not only out of fairness. It essentially confirms everything written in our initial story about Clay County’s unannounced installation of a roadside surveillance system. The following comes from Holly Beilin, communications director for Flock Safety, who did not respond when asked for comment in connection with the initial story.

We read your recent article “Clay Sheriff Implements $1.3 Million Surveillance Camera Network” posted on 10/11/23 and need to inform you that there are several inaccuracies and misinformation in the article. Please see below for requested corrections and confirm that you will make these in the online article by end of day Thursday, Oct. 19.

1. "The Flock Safety Falcon cameras record the license plates, video, and images of every car passing them…The cameras record 24/7, and no one outside Flock and the Sheriff's Office has the full details of what is collected…The cameras collect license plate data from passing vehicles and images and videos that can be used to identify vehicles when the license plate cannot be captured."

Flock Safety Falcon LPRs do not “record” at all. They are motion-activated, and only take still images, meaning that a photo is only taken when motion is detected. Flock LPRs are focused on the vehicle and license plate. The devices do not capture people or allow searches based on drivers, passengers or pedestrians; they contain no facial recognition capabilities.

The ALPR system does not connect with vehicle registration databases, so there is no Personally Identifiable Information (PII) accessible within the system. Attached you will find a screenshot that shows what the image captured on the LPR looks like. (Editor’s note: No such screenshot was attached.)

2. "Additionally, nothing in the contract outlines what safeguards are in place to prevent unauthorized access to data by Sheriff's office employees."

Flock has built the LPR system to be fully auditable. Each search requires a search reason which, along with the search itself, is recorded and saved. This search history is available for a public audit to law enforcement leadership, City Council, or other officials.

3. "Flock Inc. has faced scrutiny in other places as a Chinese data mining company is a minority owner. Despite being a minority owner, the current global tensions between China and the US have caused some municipalities to reject camera proposals from Flock."

This is wholly untrue, inaccurate, and could be perceived as libelous. Flock Safety has no connection to or relationship with China or Chinese-based companies. The aspersion makes reference to one of our minority venture capital investors, Matrix Partners, which is also an investor in dozens of companies Americans know and use each day: Canva, Hubspot, Postmates, Oculus, Splitwise, and ZenDesk, to name a few.

Matrix Partners India and Matrix Partners China, founded in 2006 and 2008 respectively, are affiliated but independent. Both international affiliates each have separate ownership, investing teams, decision-making processes, and back-office operations. The three separate partnerships do not co-invest in the same companies and do not share company data.