The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
By Michele C. Petersen.
As our Township Council decides whether, and to what extent, Franklin will use Flock Safety technology, residents should look beyond what the system promises today and ask what it could become tomorrow.
Flock’s license plate readers do not record only suspected criminals. They record every vehicle that passes, creating searchable records of when and where those vehicles were seen. Police do not ordinarily need a warrant to search these records. The present safeguard is largely that officers promise to use the system only for an authorized purpose, document the search and submit to internal auditing.
Flock says its plate readers do not use facial recognition. But facial recognition is almost beside the point (and certainly could be a future option). A license plate is easily connected to its owner. A network that records a vehicle near a church, political meeting, medical office, gun store or private home can reveal a great deal about a person without ever identifying his or her face.
There is another part of Flock that most residents probably do not know about. In 2024, Flock acquired Aerodome, a company specializing in “Drone as First Responder” technology. Flock is integrating drones with its license plate readers, gunshot detectors and real-time crime systems. A roadside camera passively records a vehicle. A drone can be automatically dispatched, travel across the community and provide live aerial surveillance.
Flock says its drones are intended for emergency response, not general patrol or surveillance. But “not used for surveillance” is a policy, not a technical limitation. Today, the drone responds to a serious crime. Tomorrow, a broader policy could permit routine patrol, monitoring of gatherings or following vehicles and individuals. The equipment will already be here. Only the rules will have to change.
That is how the proverbial frog ends up boiling. No one announces that an Orwellian surveillance system is being created. Each new camera, database and capability is introduced gradually, always with assurances that it is limited, secure and necessary.
Flock will attend our next Township Council meeting and will almost certainly assure the public that privacy is one of its highest concerns. We should remember that Flock is also a private, for-profit company whose business depends upon selling more cameras, more technology and more contracts. We should not surrender our privacy based on corporate assurances or government policies that can change.
The danger does not depend on Flock secretly planning something sinister today. The danger is creating a powerful surveillance infrastructure whose future use will depend on company policies, police discretion, government officials and laws that can all change.
We are being asked to approve the infrastructure based on today’s promises, even though tomorrow’s officials will inherit its capabilities. Flock doesn’t track people, until it does. It doesn’t use facial recognition, until it does. It doesn’t conduct routine aerial surveillance, until it does. By then, it may be too late to turn down the heat.
