Mayor Says Flock Camera Contract ‘Could Be Canceled at Any Time’

Tired of hearing about the Flock cameras in Amarillo? Yeah, me too, but it's a real thing and it has real issues, so naturally, we want to talk about it. At this point, I think we all know about the officer who misused the cameras.

On the heels of that, a discussion needed to be had about how to combat that sort of thing from happening again. Amarillo City Council got involved in the mess that was created from it and had Police Chief Thomas Hover come and chat with them about the cameras.

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New Policies Being Put In Place

At the meeting, Chief Hover told the city council that they've already adapted the system to keep footage from the cameras for only seven days. That's down from the 30 days the system used to hang on to video. I mean, it's a step in the right direction.

He also mentioned that supervisors now must conduct random monthly reviews of officers' searches using the system, and anything that Flock's AI auditing system flags must be reviewed within three days. These things are good and needed, but how does it address the concerns that we are all being unfairly monitored?

Could Flock Cameras Be Removed From Amarillo

That was something that was mentioned as a possibility. One of the things council members asked about was who could access the data, and Hover explained it was limited to Texas law enforcement agencies. However, there are still other authorized agencies who can access the data if needed.

Mayor Cole Stanley did mention he would consider getting rid of the Flock cameras altogether if they could find a technology that is safer. He also elaborated on that, stating that no contracts were safe for that reason, meaning the Flock contract could be canceled at any time if a better alternative was found to protect citizens' privacy. He said everything is up for discussion.

Are The Flock Cameras Working

This is the one thing that gave Hover a huge win, because the cameras are indeed doing what they were intended to do. The results are truly impressive if you ask me, and there's a good chance we wouldn't be anywhere close to these numbers without the cameras.

251 stolen vehicles have been recovered thanks to the help of the cameras. 44 missing people have been found with help from the cameras, and over 900 arrests have been made because of the cameras. I'm not saying it's not an invasion of privacy, but they do seem to be doing the job they were intended to do.

There is no doubt the debate will rage on, as it should. There are definite flaws with the system and the processes involved with it, but we do have to give them a little credit, as they do seem to be helping make Amarillo a bit safer.