Troy Police Chief Dan DeWolf opposes further restrictions on the city's Flock cameras after an audit that he says found the cameras to be “very useful” as a deterrent and investigative aid.
In May, city leaders initiated the 60-day audit conducted by the Troy Police Department to gather data on how Flock cameras are used amid a debate over the license plate readers.
“There’s a bit of deterrent to them, but more so, it’s the investigative aid that they give our detectives,” DeWolf told WAMC. “You're able to use those clues to maybe come up with a suspect, maybe not come up with a suspect. But without it, we’d have nothing.”
DeWolf’s comments come as the Troy City Council mulls putting more restrictions on the Flock cameras.
Councilmember Nancy McKee is proposing a law that would force police to delete Flock data after 48 hours and only allow Flock cameras to compare license plates against lists of vehicles linked to criminal investigations. McKee has argued that maintaining data for longer than 48 hours could allow Troy residents to be tracked.
“It reduces the ability for bad actors to use it and to make predictions, because they'll have all this data about our movements,” McKee said in May. “You know, you get seven days of that data, and you can make very accurate predictions about where people go, what time of day, and so that's why we came up with 48 hours.”
DeWolf said he supports the city's current data retention policy, which allows the department to maintain Flock data for 30 days.
"I don’t think 30 days is unreasonable,” DeWolf said. “It’s not like TV. Investigations aren’t done in an hour, and sometimes they’re not done in a month, you know, depending on how complicated they are, or how information that’s going to help you trickles in."
Opponents of Troy’s Flock cameras have pointed to cases where data was misused or leaked. DeWolf dismissed concerns, arguing that the department’s safeguards would prevent such abuse. He pointed to policies that only allow higher-ranking officers — “about maybe half of the department,” per DeWolf — to have access to Flock data. A Troy police captain also reviews all data queries.
“Trust your police department, we’re doing it the proper way,” DeWolf said. “I know that there's stories out there across the nation about this department or that department, and those are personnel matters. It's not something that the technology did; it’s something that a human did, and we keep a close eye on making sure that nothing like that happens here."
The Democratic-majority City Council tried to prevent the city from renewing its contract with Flock by ordering the city auditor to withhold funding. But, Mayor Carmella Mantello declared a state of emergency to keep the funding going. Mantello and the City Council are now embroiled in a lawsuit over the emergency declaration.
Flock cameras are automatic license plate readers, which collect and log license plate and vehicle information and compare it to other law enforcement databases. A recent report from the journalist-owned tech news site 404 Media found that the cameras can also be used to track people.
The city first installed the cameras more than five years ago and now has 26 throughout the city in undisclosed locations. The cameras cost the city $78,000 per year.
