Flagstaff City Council to Deliberate on AI License Plate Camera Program Amid Privacy Concerns
The use of artificial intelligence in monitoring traffic is under scrutiny as the Flagstaff City Council prepares to evaluate its current license plate camera initiative. This comes after several northern Arizona communities have opted to pause or discontinue similar programs due to public dissent.
Flagstaff’s contract with Flock Safety involves 32 AI-powered cameras, costing the city $112,000. Holly Bailin, a spokesperson for Flock Safety, advocates for the program, citing its potential to enhance safety. “That it can find a kidnapped child, that it can find a missing senior citizen who is a grandpa that is suffering from Alzheimer’s and escaped,” Bailin states. “That’s what this technology can do in a way that is customizable to a community and that can protect their privacy rights.”
Bailin further emphasizes the need for community collaboration with local law enforcement to tailor the program’s features and policies: “The next step of that, though, is those citizens with those questions [should] work closely with their police department to ensure that the features, the guardrails, the use cases, the policies that they want to see, are implemented in their community.”
Nevertheless, privacy concerns persist among Flagstaff residents who worry about potential data sharing with federal immigration agencies. These concerns have led to a petition urging the city to terminate the program.
A report by the Center for Human Rights at the University of Washington alleges unauthorized access by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol to data collected by Flock in Washington state. The report highlights “back door” access to data and instances where other law enforcement bodies searched data on behalf of federal agencies.
Flock Safety has refuted these claims, asserting that data sharing is at the discretion of their clients. “Every Flock customer has complete control over their sharing relationships, and Flock never shares customer data without their knowledge or permission,” as stated in a company statement. They maintain that collaboration with federal agencies is a decision left to local public safety agencies, especially in tackling serious crimes.
These findings have led some Washington cities to restrict their AI camera programs. In response to the controversy, Flock has also ended pilot programs with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as of August.
The Flagstaff City Council is scheduled to deliberate on the matter on Tuesday, weighing public safety benefits against privacy concerns.
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